LIBRARY    \ 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO       \ 


presented  to  the 

LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  •  SAN  DIEGO 

by 
FRIENDS  OF  THE  LIBRARY 


MRS.   F.W.   SIMPSON 


donor 


- 


HOUSING  REFORM 


RUSSELL   SAGE    FOUNDATION 
PU  BLICATIONS 

A  MODEL  TENEMENT  HOUSE  LAW.  By  LAWRENCE 
VEILLER.  130  pages.  Price,  postpaid,  $1.25. 

THE  STANDARD  OF  LIVING  AMONG  WORKING- 
MEN'S  FAMILIES  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY.  By 
ROBERT  COIT  CHAPIN,  Ph.D.  388  pages.  131  tables. 
1 6  diagrams.  Price,  postpaid,  $2.00. 

MEDICAL  INSPECTION  OF  SCHOOLS.  By  LUTHER 
HALSEY  GULICK,  M.D.,  and  LEONARD  P.  AYRES,  A.M. 
286  pages.  Third  edition.  Price,  postpaid,  $1.00. 

LAGGARDS  IN  OUR  SCHOOLS:  A  Study  of  Retarda- 
tion and  Elimination  in  City  School  Systems.  By 
LEONARD  P.  AYRES,  A.M.  252  pages.  106  tables. 
38  diagrams.  Price,  postpaid,  $1.50. 

THE  PITTSBURGH  SURVEY.  Findings  in  six  vol- 
umes. Butler's  "Women  and  the  Trades,"  published 
January,  1910.  440  pages.  Price,  $1.50.  By  mail,  11.72. 
(Other  volumes  in  preparation.) 

THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  TUBERCULOSIS  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES:  Including  a  Directory  of  Institutions 
dealing  with  Tuberculosis  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 
Compiled  under  the  direction  of  the  National  Association 
for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis.  By  PHILIP 
P.  JACOBS.  467  pages.  Price,  postpaid,  $ i.oo. 

HOUSING  REFORM:  A  Hand-book  for  Practical  Use  in 
American  Cities.  By  LAWRENCE  VEILLER.  Foreword  by 
Robert  W.  de  Forest.  220  pages.  Price,  postpaid,  $1.25. 

AMONG  SCHOOL  GARDENS.  By  M.  LOUISE  GREENE, 
M.Pd.,  Ph.D.  (In  Press.) 

REPORT  ON  THE  DESIRABILITY  OF  ESTABLISHING 
AN  EMPLOYMENT  BUREAU  IN  THE  CITY  OF 
NEW  YORK.  By  EDWARD  T.  DEVINE,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 
238  pages.  Paper.  Price,  postpaid,  fi.oo. 

THE  SALARY  LOAN  BUSINESS  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY. 
By  CLARENCE  W.  WASSAM,  Ph.D.     With  Extracts  from 
an  unpublished  Report  by  FRANK  JULIAN  WARNE,  Ph.D. 
143  pages.     Paper.  Price,  postpaid,  75  cents. 

THE  CHATTEL  LOAN  BUSINESS.     By  ARTHUR  H.  HAM. 
60  pages.     Paper.  Price,  postpaid,  25  cents. 

CHARITIES    PUBLICATION    COMMITTEE 

105    EAST  22D  STREET,   NEW  YORK 
158   ADAMS   STREET.   CHICAGO 


RUSSELL  SAGE 
FOUNDATION 


HOUSING  REFORM 

A    HAND-BOOK    FOR 

PRACTICAL    USE 

IN    AMERICAN 

CITIES 


BY 

LAWRENCE   VEILLER 


NEW     YORK 

CHARITIES     PUBLICATION 
COMMITTE  E     .  .     MCMX 


Copy  right,  1910,  by 
The  Russell  Sage  Foundation 


PRESS   OF   WM.    F.    FELL   CO. 
PHILADELPHIA 


FOREWORD 

BY  ROBERT  W.  DE  FOREST 

THIS  book  is  a  practical  handbook  on  tene- 
ment reform  in  America.  Public  spirited 
citizens  of  every  American  city  are  asking 
themselves  what  to  do  to  prevent  in  their  commu- 
nity the  housing  evils  that  have  grown  up  elsewhere 
and  to  remedy  those  that  have  come  into  existence 
around  their  own  homes.  This  book  is  intended 
to  answer  that  question.  There  is  no  more  of 
theory  about  it  than  is  essential  to  intelligent 
conclusion  and  effective  action.  It  has  been 
written  at  the  instance  of  the  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion by  the  person  who  is  most  competent,  by 
knowledge  and  experience,  to  answer  that  ques- 
tion. 

Lawrence  Veiller  has  made  a  lifelong  study  of 
this  subject.  As  a  settlement  worker  in  New  York 
he  acquired  an  intimate  knowledge  of  how  the 
wage  earners  of  that  city  live.  He  was  secretary 
and  practical  director  of  the  Tenement  House 
Committee  of  the  New  York  Charity  Organization 
Society  when  it  was  first  organized  in  1898.  He 
became  secretary  of  the  New  York  State  Tenement 
House  Commission  of  1900,  which  drafted  the 
present  Tenement  Law  for  cities  of  the  first  class 

vii 


FOREWORD 

and  created  the  Tenement  Department  of  New 
York  City.  And  as  First  Deputy  Tenement 
Commissioner  during  the  two  years  after  the 
Department  came  into  existence  he  had  a  large 
part  in  the  initial  enforcement  of  that  law. 

The  last  chapter  in  the  book  contains  a  collec- 
tion of  negative  "Don'ts."  All  the  previous 
chapters  deal  with  affirmative  "Do's." 

If  I  were  to  emphasize  any  particular  line  of 
affirmative  action  in  housing  reform,  it  would  be 
the  prevention  of  the  tenement  disease  before  any 
city  begins  to  suffer  from  it. 

We  Americans  have  an  unhappy  faculty  of  not 
remembering  until  after  we  have  forgotten,  of 
not  beginning  to  conserve  our  resources  and  save 
our  forests  until  after  we  have  lost  them.  But 
we  are  surely  practical  enough  to  profit  by  ex- 
perience. And  experience  applied  to  housing 
reform  establishes  the  proposition  which  should 
be  printed  in  large  type  that  No  GROWING 

AMERICAN  CITY,  HOWEVER  FREE  FROM  TENE- 
MENTS NOW,  CAN  AFFORD  TO  BE  WITHOUT  BUILD- 
ING REGULATIONS  TO  PREVENT  DARK  ROOMS 

AND  UNSANITARY  CONDITIONS.  There  is  no  hard- 
ship to  anyone  in  so  regulating  the  future  building 
of  all  houses  intended  to  contain  three  or  more 
families  as  to  ensure  an  open  space  in  the  rear,  a 
window  for  every  room,  opening  either  on  the  street 
or  an  open  rear  or  an  open  court  proportioned 
to  height,  also  water  supply,  sewer  connection 
and  a  separate  toilet.  There  can  be  no  intelligent 

viii 


FOREWORD 

opposition  to  such  a  regulation,  be  it  by  state  law 
or  city  ordinance.  Such  regulation,  however 
much  tenement  evils  may  have  come  to  exist, 
will  safeguard  the  future,  even  if  some  of  the  past 
is  lost.  It  is  in  the  line  of  least  resistance  and 
greatest  accomplishment. 

There  is  nothing  inherently  objectionable  in 
the  tenement  as  a  type  of  city  dwelling;  that  is, 
in  a  multiple  house  intended  to  be  occupied  by 
three  or  more  families  living  independently. 
The  objection  lies  in  permitting  them  to  be  built 
without  proper  regulation.  It  is  the  wellnigh 
universal  form  in  many  European  cities.  It  is 
likely  to  be  increasingly  the  form  in  American 
cities. 

There  comes  a  time  in  the  growth  of  every  city 
when  it  begins  to  feel  the  need  of  building  laws 
to  guard  against  fire,  and  appropriate  enactment 
is  made.  If  destruction  to  life  and  property  by 
disease  were  as  spectacular  as  destruction  by 
fire,  protection  against  disease-breeding  houses 
would  precede  protection  against  those  that  spread 
only  fire.  Both  kinds  of  protection  are  essential 
and  cannot  be  ensured  too  early  in  a  city's  de- 
velopment. 


IX 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


FOREWORD,  BY  ROBERT  W.  DEFOREST    .       .       .     vii 

I 

Housing  Evils  and  their  Significance       ...       3 

II 

Some  Popular  Fallacies 15 

III 

Congestion  and  Overcrowding 27 

IV 
The  Housing  Problem  a  Three-Fold  One        .       .     39 

V 
How  to  Start  a  Movement  for  Housing  Reform     .     49 

VI 
The  Essentials  of  a  Housing  Investigation      .       .     55 

VII 

Model  Tenements  and  their  Limitations         .       .     63 

VIII 

Municipal  Tenements  and  Municipal  Regulation   .     77 

xi 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 
IX 

Essential  Principles  of  a  Housing  Law    ...     89 


PACK 


X 

What  a  Housing  Law  should  Contain      .       .       .   101 

XI 

The  Enforcement  of  Housing  Laws  .       .       .       -123 

XII 

How  to  Secure  Legislative  Reforms .        .       .       -151 

XIII 
The  Field  of  Private  Effort 171 

XIV 

A  Chapter  of  "Don' ts" 193 

SAMPLE    SCHEDULES    FOR    HOUSING    INVESTIGA- 
TIONS      199 

INDEX 207 


xu 


I 

HOUSING  EVILS  AND  THEIR 
SIGNIFICANCE 


1 

HOUSING    EVILS   AND   TFVEIR 
SIGNIFICANCE 

EVERY  American  city  has  its  housing  problem. 
While  in  no  two  cities  the  same,  in  all 
there  are  certain  underlying  conditions 
which  find  common  expression.  Bad  housing  con- 
ditions generally  first  manifest  themselves  when 
several  families  are  found  living  in  a  dwelling  in- 
tended originally  for  a  single  family.  Then,  with 
the  increase  in  population,  there  comes  the  building 
of  regular  tenement  houses  usually  before  any 
restrictions  have  been  thought  of  by  the  com- 
munity. Rapidly  from  this  point  develop  the 
evils  of  cellar  dwellings,  unsanitary  privies,  lack 
of  drainage,  inadequate  water  supply,  filthy  out- 
premises,  defective  plumbing,  dark  rooms  and 
halls,  overcrowding,  the  taking  in  of  lodgers, 
congestion,  excessive  rents,  the  sweating  evil  and 
those  other  manifestations  of  modern  social  life 
which  are  too  often  seen  in  our  large  cities. 

The  causes  for  these  evils  are  not  to  be  found  in 
any  one  thing  but  are  to  be  traced  through  a  va- 
riety of  influences  operating  through  considerable 
periods  of  time.  Some  of  the  evils  are  peculiar 

3 


HOUSING    REFORM 

to  a  single  com;7  xmity,  but  most  of  them  sooner 
or  later  are  foil1  id  in  all  cities.  The  chief  under- 
lying factor  which  stands  out  in  every  community 
is  that  they  ire,  in  nearly  every  case,  due  to 
neglect  and  'gnorance.  Neglect  on  the  part  of 
the  commun  ty,  failure  of  its  citizens  to  recognize 
evil  tenden^es  as  they  develop;  dangerous  igno- 
rance on  the  part  of  citizens  and  public  officials 
of  what  is  going  on  within  the  city's  gates — a 
feeling  of  safety  and  of  confidence  that  all  must 
be  right  because  they  see  little  that  is  wrong,  that 
things  cannot  be  bad  as  long  as  they  are  hidden; 
a  false  civic  pride  which  believes  that  everything 
in  one's  own  city  is  the  best,  a  dangerous  sort  of 
apathy  content  to  leave  things  as  they  are,  a 
laisse^  faire  policy  which  brings  forth  fruit  of 
unrighteousness. 

Invariably  accompanying  these  two  causes, 
but  to  a  lesser  degree,  is  found  a  third,  greed. 
Greed  on  the  part  of  those  persons  who  for  the 
sake  of  a  larger  profit  on  their  investments,  are 
willing  to  traffic  in  human  lives,  to  sacrifice  the 
health  and  welfare  of  countless  thousands. 

It  is  only  in  comparatively  recent  years  that 
the  community  as  a  whole  has  beenjilive  to  the 
importance_of  right  housing  conditions,  and  the 
far-reaching  influence  of  wrong  ones.  With  the 
changed  view  that  has  come  of  late  with  regard 
to  much  of  our  modern  charitable  and  social 
effort,  emphasis  has  come  to  be  placed  more  and 
more  upon  the  environment  in  which  people  live, 

4 


HOUSING    EVILS   AND   THEIR   SIGNIFICANCE 

and  less  upon  those  hereditary  traits  of  character 
which  social  workers  of  earlier  years  were  wont 
to  observe. 

1 1  is  not  so  very  many  years  since  we  were  told 
that  it  was  practically  useless  to  attempt  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  poor;  that  their 
poverty  was  caused  by  their  own  vices,  by  defects 
of  character  transmitted  from  father  to  son,  from 
generation  to  generation,  by  faults  which  were  in 
the  blood,  hereditary  traits  and  instincts  impos- 
sible to  overcome.  The  theory  that  tuberculosis 
was  an  incurable  hereditary  disease  prevailed 
with  equal  force  about  the  same  period.  We 
know  now,  however,  that  both  these  views  were 
erroneous;  that  poverty  too  is  a  germ  disease, 
contagious  even  at  times;  that  it  thrives  amid  the 
same  conditions  as  those  under  which  the  germs 
of  tuberculosis  flourish — in  darkness,  filth  and 
sordid  surroundings;  and  that  when  the  light 
has  once  been  let  in  the  first  step  towards  its  cure 
has  been  taken. 

Environment  leaves  its  ineffaceable  records  on 
the  souls,  minds  and  bodies  of  men,  there  to  be 
read  by  all  able  to  understand.  A  child  living 
its  early  years  in  dark  rooms,  without  sunlight 
or  fresh  air,  does  not  grow  up  to  be  a  normal 
healthy  person,  but  is  anaemic,  weak,  sickly,  like 
a  plant  grown  in  the  dark.  He  is  handicapped  in 
his  school  life;  his  earning  capacity  is  diminished 
and  his  resisting  power  weakened.  It  is  not  of 
such  material  that  strong  nations  are  made.  Im- 

5 


HOUSING    REFORM 

provement  of  social  conditions,  as  indeed  of  all 
others,  starts  with  the  improvement  of  domestic 
life.  When  there  are  no  homes  there  will  be  no 
nation. 

While  every  American  city  has  its  housing 
problem,  fortunately  but  few  cities  have  as  yet  a 
tenement  house  problem.  The  two  are  quite 
distinct  and  should  be  carefully  differentiated. 
Moreover,  no  city  in  America,  except  New  York, 
need  have  a  tenement  house  problem.  The  few 
that  have  can  easily  solve  their  problems  at  their 
present  stage  of  development,  if  they  will  be  ac- 
tive and  vigilant. 

It  should  be  recognized  at  the  outset  that  the 
normal  method  of  housing  the  working  population 
in  our  American  cities  is  in  small  houses,  each 
house  occupied  by  a  separate  family,  often  with  a 
small  bit  of  land,  with  privacy  for  all,  and  with  a 
secure  sense  of  individuality  and  opportunity  for 
real  domestic  life.  Under  no  other  method  can 
we  expect  American  institutions  to  be  main- 
tained. It  is  useless  to  expect  a  conservative 
point  of  view  in  the  workingman,  if  his  home  is 
but  three  or  four  rooms  in  some  huge  building  in 
which  dwell  from  twenty  to  thirty  other  families, 
and  this  home  is  his  only  from  month  to  month. 
Where  a  man  has  a  home  of  his  own  he  has  every 
incentive  to  be  economical  and  thrifty,  to  take 
his  part  in  the  duties  of  citizenship,  to  be  a  real 
sharer  in  government.  Democracy  was  not  pred- 

6 


HOUSING    EVILS    AND   THEIR    SIGNIFICANCE 

icated    upon    a  country  made   up  of   tenement 
^dwellers,  nor  can  it  so  survive. 

It  is  in  such  small  houses  that  the  great  mass 
of  the  working  people  are  housed  in  most  of  our 
cities.  It  is  so  in  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  Boston, 
Detroit,  Baltimore,  Washington,  Pittsburgh,  St. 
Louis,  Cincinnati,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Indian- 
apolis, San  Francisco,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and 
in  fact  in  all  the  larger  cities  except  New  York. 
In  many  of  these  cities,  however,  several  families 
live  in  one  building,  in  some  cities  there  are 
frequently  two  families  to  a  house,  in  others  three, 
and  in  others  even  more.  In  a  few,  the  tenement 
house  system  has  begun  to  develop;  and  in  all  of 
those  mentioned  there  are  found  individual  tene- 
ment houses,  similar  to  those  of  New  York- 
large  buildings  four  or  five  stories  high,  with 
several  families  on  each  floor,  and  with  all  the 
usual  features  of  the  multiple  dwelling.  But  in 
none  of  these  cities,  as  yet,  has  this  become  the 
dominant  type  of  building.  In  that  lies  the 
hopeful  element  of  the  situation. 

The  conditions  in  New  York  are  without 
parallel  in  the  civilized  world.  In  no  city  of 
Europe,  not  in  Naples  nor  in  Rome,  neither  in 
London  nor  in  Paris,  neither  in  Berlin,  Vienna 
nor  Buda  Pesth,  not  in  Constantinople  nor  in  St. 
Petersburgh,  not  in  ancient  Edinburgh  nor  modern 
Glasgow,  not  in  heathen  Canton  nor  Bombay  are 
to  be  found  such  conditions  as  prevail  in  modern, 

7 


HOUSING    REFORM 

enlightened,    twentieth    century,    Christian   New 
York. 

In  no  other  city  is  the  mass  of  the  working 
population  housed  as  it  is  in  New  York,  in  tall 
tenement  houses,  extending  up  into  the  air  fifty 
or  sixty  feet,  and  stretching  for  miles  in  every 
direction  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  In  no  other 
city  are  there  the  same  appalling  conditions  with 
regard  to  lack  of  light  and  air  in  the  homes  of 
the  poor.  In  no  other  city  is  there  so  great  con- 
gestion and  overcrowding.  In  no  other  city  do 
the  poor  so  suffer  from  excessive  rents;  in  no  city 
are  the  conditions  of  city  life  so  complex.  No- 
where are  the  evils  of  modern  life  so  varied, 
nowhere  are  the  problems  so  difficult  of  solution. 

If  New  York  is  so  abnormal  it  may  well  be 
asked  of  what  benefit  to  other  communities  are 
its  problems;  what  lessons  can  others  learn  from 
New  York's  experience?  New  York,  cosmopoli- 
tan in  its  population,  is  equally  cosmopolitan  in 
its  social  problems.  Here  will  be  found  the  prob- 
lems of  all  other  American  cities,  sometimes  only 
in  the  germ,  often,  however,  developed  to  an 
extent  not  dreamt  of  elsewhere.  New  York  is 
the  "horrible  example."  It  is  the  startling 
crystallization  in  brick  and  mortar  of  the  potential 
housing  evils  of  every  other  American  city.  It 
typifies  the  kind  of  city  that  other  American 
cities  may  develop  into  under  the  influence  of 
similar  forces,  unless  timely  effort  is  put  forth  to 
prevent  such  development. 

8 


HOUSING    EVILS    AND   THEIR    SIGNIFICANCE 

In  1835,  74  years  ago,  New  York  had  a  popula- 
tion of  about  270,000  and  was  then  a  city  of  the 
size  of  Detroit,  Milwaukee  and  Washington  to-day. 
New  York  then  had  no  tenement  house  system; 
it  had  then  no  miles  of  congested  streets,  no  lodger 
evil,  no  overcrowding,  no  social  problems  of  great 
magnitude. 

The  homes  of  its  working  people  were  at  that 
time  small  one-story  and  two-story  houses, 
each  family  living  in  its  separate  house,  as  they  do 
to-day  in  Detroit,  Milwaukee  and  Washington, 
cities  of  the  same  size.  Had  New  York  been 
told  at  that  time  that  conditions  would  ever  be 
such  as  they  are  to-day,  who  would  have  given 
credence  to  such  wild  statements?  And  yet  what 
reason  is  there  to  expect  that  Detroit,  Milwaukee, 
Washington  and  similar  cities  may  not  in  time 
develop  as  New  York  has,  and  exhibit  seventy- 
five  years  from  now  similar  conditions  to  plague 
future  communities  with  social  problems  of  similar 
or  even  greater  difficulty?  Who  can  doubt  that 
the  tendencies  and  forces  at  work  in  New  York 
in  these  past  seventy-five  years  are  as  surely  at 
work  to-day  in  other  American  cities? 

In  the  experience  of  New  York  may  be  found  a 
lesson  for  every  other  city.  Here,  exhibited  in 
striking  form,  are  to  be  seen  the  evils  that  have 
resulted  from  sixty  years'  neglect  of  housing 
conditions,  the  failure  not  merely  to  anticipate 
the  city's  future  development  and  to  provide 
safeguards  against  evil  tendencies,  but,  far  worse, 

9 


HOUSING    REFORM 

failure  to  recognize  and  remedy  evils  long  existent, 
and  further  failure  of  the  efforts  at  amelioration 
to  keep  pace  with  the  new  evils  fast  developing. 
So  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  effort  put  forth, 
notwithstanding  the  great  accomplishments  of 
recent  years,  housing  conditions  in  New  York  to- 
day are  worse  than  they  were  sixty  years  ago. 

Through  these  causes,  we  have  to-day  the 
tenement  house  system  prevalent  throughout  New 
York  as  the  chief  means  of  housing  the  greater 
part  of  the  city's  population,  over  two-thirds  of 
the  people  living  in  multiple  dwellings;  we  have 
to-day  over  100,000  separate  tenement  houses;  we 
have  a  city  built  up  of  four  and  five-story  buildings, 
instead  of  two-story  and  three-story  ones;  we 
have  over  10,000  tenement  houses  of  the  hopeless 
and  discredited  "dumb-bell"  type  with  narrow 
"air-shafts"  furnishing  neither  sunlight  nor  fresh 
air  to  the  thousands  of  people  living  in  the  rooms 
opening  on  them;  we  have  over  20,000  tenement 
houses  of  the  older  type  in  which  most  of  the  rooms 
are  without  light  or  ventilation;  we  have  over 
100,000  dark  unventilated  rooms  without  even  a 
window  to  an  adjoining  room;  we  have  80,000 
buildings,  housing  nearly  3,000,000  people,  so 
constructed  as  to  be  a  standing  menace  to  the 
community  in  the  event  of  fire,  most  of  them  built 
with  wooden  stairs,  wooden  halls  and  wooden 
floors,  and  thousands  built  entirely  of  wood. 

Over  a  million  people  have  no  bathing  facilities 
in  their  homes;  while  even  a  greater  number  are 

10 


HOUSING    EVILS    AND   THEIR    SIGNIFICANCE 

limited  to  the  use  of  sanitary  conveniences  in 
common  with  other  families,  without  proper 
privacy;  over  a  quarter  of  a  million  people  had  in 
the  year  1900,  no  other  sanitary  conveniences  than 
antiquated  yard  privies;  and  even  to-day  2000 
of  these  privy  sinks  still  remain,  many  of  them 
located  in  densely  populated  districts,  a  source  of 
danger  to  all  in  the  neighborhood,  facilitating 
the  spread  of  contagious  disease  through  the 
medium  of  the  common  house-fly. 

Here  we  have  conditions  of  congestion  of  pop- 
ulation unparalleled  elsewhere  in  the  civilized 
world.  In  one  small  portion  of  Manhattan  Island, 
the  district  south  of  Fourteenth  street  and  east  of 
Broadway,  dwell  over  500,000  human  beings,  a 
population  in  itself  greater  than  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  any  other  American  city  except  Chicago, 
Philadelphia,  St.  Louis,  Boston  and  Baltimore; 
a  population  greater,  indeed,  than  the  population 
of  each  of  the  following  states:  Arizona,  Delaware, 
Idaho,  Montana,  Nevada,  North  Dakota,  Oregon, 
New  Hampshire,  New  Mexico,  Rhode  Island, 
Utah,  Vermont  and  Wyoming. 

New  York  may  well  serve  as  a  warning  to  other 
communities  of  what  may  come  from  present 
tendencies  if  allowed  to  continue  unchecked. 
If  you  do  not  want  such  conditions  in  your  city, 
there  is  but  one  way  to  avoid  them.  See  to  it 
that  you  do  not  get  them.  Be  alert  and  vigilant. 
Study  present  and  future  tendencies.  Profit  by 
New  York's  mistakes.  Keep  your  city  a  city 

1 1 


HOUSING    REFORM 

of  homes,  not  a  city  of  tenements.  It  is  all  pos- 
sible, if  you  act  in  time.  There  is  a  time  when  all 
errors  can  be  remedied  with  comparatively  little 
loss;  do  not  let  that  time  go  by. 

No  housing  evils  are  necessary;  none  need  be 
tolerated.  Where  they  exist  they  are  always  a 
reflection  upon  the  intelligence,  rightmindedness 
and  moral  tone  of  the  community. 


12 


II 

SOME  POPULAR  FALLACIES 


II 

SOME  POPULAR  FALLACIES 

TO  properly  understand  the  housing  problem 
it  is  necessary  for  many  of  us  to  free  our 
minds  from  a  number  of  misconceptions- 
popular  fallacies — which  seem  to  possess  a  subtle 
power  of  impression  and  which  prevail  far  more 
easily  than  the  truth.  Chief  among  these  is  the 
belief  that  the  poor  are  of  a  different  race  from 
the  rich;  that  they  have  not  the  same  impulses, 
the  same  vices,  the  same  frailties,  the  same  virtues; 
that  they  are  a  totally  distinct  class,  who,  when 
they  are  in  misfortune  or  in  misery,  are  so  because 
of  their  own  fault;  that  in  some  way  they  possess 
a  natural  faculty  for  getting  into  trouble;  that 
intemperance  among  the  rich  is  a  disease,  among 
the  poor  a  deliberate  vice;  that  the  poor  should 
always  immediately  recognize  the  wisdom  of  the 
advice  offered  by  those  who  would  not  dare  to 
proffer  similar  suggestions  to  more  prosperous 
friends,  and  that  failure  to  take  such  advice  is  a 
sign  of  wicked  wilfulness.  Probably  no  one  thing 
more  clearly  indicates  the  kinship  of  the  rich  and 
the  poor  than  the  ingrained  unwillingness  of  both 
to  follow  the  advice  of  others;  unless,  perhaps, 

>5 


HOUSING    REFORM 

the  failure  of  both  alike  to  realize  that  "The  life 
is  more  than  meat  and  the  body  than  raiment." 
The  rich  and  the  poor  are  indeed  alike  in  all 
essential  particulars — and  that  is  the  trouble. 
Were  they  different,  we  might  with  reason  hope 
that  ethical  principles  to  which  one  class  has 
failed  to  respond  might  indeed  appeal  to  the  other. 
That  failure  is  the  failure  of  humanity  in  general, 
and  not  of  the  poor  alone. 

A  kindred  fallacy  is  that  the  poor  do  not  want 
good  housing  conditions;  that  there  is  no  use  in 
providing  improved  dwellings  for  them;  that  good 
homes  will  not  be  appreciated  and  that  the 
majority  of  the  working  people  prefer  to  live  in 
squalor  and  in  sordid  surroundings.  Nothing 
could  be  farther  from  the  facts.  That  there  are 
individuals  in  every  community  who  prefer  to 
live  in  squalor  is  unquestionably  true,  but  the 
majority  of  the  poor  not  only  welcome  improved 
housing  conditions  but  ardently  desire  them. 
One  of  the  most  pathetic  things  in  modern  city 
life  is  the  constant  striving  on  their  part  to  improve 
living  surroundings.  That  so  many  triumph  over 
their  adverse  environment  is  everlastingly  to 
their  credit. 

Another  popular  fallacy  is  the  view  that  it  is 
only  the  people  who  need  to  be  reformed  and  not 
the  physical,  industrial  and  social  conditions  under 
which  they  live.  If  one  still  adheres  to  the  doc- 
trine of  original  sin  and  the  innate  depravity  of 
the  human  race,  it  is  conceivable  that  such  views 

16 


SOME    POPULAR    FALLACIES 

should  be  held.  No  one,  however,  who  has  worked 
for  even  a  slight  period  of  time  among  the  poor 
has  any  doubt  of  what  it  is  that  needs  reformation 
first.  It  will  generally  be  found  that  when  the 
conditions  surrounding  the  lives  of  the  poor  have 
been  changed  the  people  have,  in  large  measure, 
changed  with  them. 

We  all  live  up  to  our  environment  more  or  less, 
like  the  beggar  in  the  bed  of  the  king,  and  it  is 
certainly  the  first  duty  of  government  "To  make 
it  as  hard  as  possible  for  men  to  go  wrong  and  as 
easy  as  possible  for  them  to  go  right" — to  remove 
the  hindering  things  that  cramp  and  weaken  both 
body  and  soul. 

Deep-rooted,  too,  is  the  belief  that  the  poor 
like  to  be  dirty,  instanced  always  by  the  oft- 
repeated  story  that  the  common  use  of  bathtubs 
among  this  class  of  society  is  for  the  storage  of 
coal.  No  story,  I  imagine,  has  been  repeated 
more  often  and  none  has  less  basis  of  fact — a 
hasty  generalization  from  a  single  instance. 
Perhaps  my  failure  during  sixteen  years'  constant 
experience  of  tenement  conditions  in  New  York, 
throughout  all  parts  of  it,  to  observe  instances 
of  this  nature  has  been  due  to  the  failure  to  find 
the  bathtub,  an  institution  that  it  has  seldom  been 
my  good  fortune  to  encounter  in  the  ordinary 
tenement  house.  When  one  considers  that  few 
of  the  tenement  population  possess  so  great  a 
luxury  as  a  bathtub,  and  that  it  is  their  custom 
to  buy  coal  by  the  pail  because  of  their  inability 
2  17 


HOUSING    REFORM 

to  pay  for  a  larger  quantity  at  one  time,  the  story 
falls  to  the  ground. 

Over  against  this  impressionistic  picture  one 
should,  in  all  fairness,  place  those  countless  others, 
which  stand  out  with  photographic  clearness,  of 
the  tenement  house  mother  laboriously  carrying 
in  pail  after  pail  of  water  from  the  one  faucet  in 
the  public  hall,  heating  it  in  various  receptacles 
on  the  kitchen  stove  and  giving  child  after  child 
its  bath  in  an  inconvenient  wooden  wash  tub. 

The  most  emphatic  proof  of  the  desire  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  tenement  population  for  physical 
cleanliness,  is  furnished  by  the  experience  of 
various  public  baths.  A  striking  instance  is  found 
in  the  case  of  the  People's  Baths.  Founded  in 
1891  and  located  partly  in  the  crowded  Italian  quar- 
ter and  partly  on  the  edge  of  the  commercial  dis- 
trict and  therefore  somewhat  at  a  disadvantage,  the 
number  of  baths  taken  increased  from  59,440 
in  1892  to  135,599  in  1908,  and  this  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  a  fee  of  five  cents  is  charged  for 
each  bath.  Few  people  realize  the  efforts  made 
by  most  of  the  tenement  house  population  to  keep 
clean  under  the  most  adverse  conditions.  When 
all  the  water  that  can  be  obtained  must  be  carried 
up  several  flights  of  stairs,  cleanliness  is  indeed  a 
virtue. 

Then  there  is  the  fallacious  fear  on  the  part  of 
some  that  there  will  be  a  lack  of  shelter  and  that 
unless  some  philanthropist  provides  special  hous- 
ing accommodations  at  once  for  the  lowest  classes 

18 


SOME    POPULAR    FALLACIES 

in  the  community,  they  will  have  nowhere  to 
live.  This  has  never  been  a  practical  question  in 
any  American  city.  There  are,  of  course,  times 
when  there  may  be  in  some  quarters  of  each  city 
a  shortage  of  housing  accommodations,  within 
certain  rentals,  but  there  is  never  such  lack  of 
accommodations  that  people  are  without  shelter 
because  of  inability  to  find  places  in  which  to  live; 
nor  will  there  ever  be  such  a  situation. 

Where  pressure  for  living  accommodations  be- 
comes so  great  that  the  demand  overwhelmingly 
exceeds  the  supply,  there  is  always  a  migration  of 
workers  and  their  families  from  one  section  to  an- 
other. Before  such  a  situation  develops,  however, 
the  self-interest  of  the  average  builder  can  be 
trusted  to  deal  with  it.  Such  men  keep  in  very 
close  touch  with  the  development  of  each  section 
of  the  city  and  are  quick  to  seize  their  opportunity 
to  make  a  profitable  investment.  This  fear  that 
there  will  be  a  lack  of  shelter  is  frequently  ex- 
pressed in  connection  with  large  public  improve- 
ments. Where  it  is  proposed  to  tear  down 
unsanitary  tenements,  or  to  create  a  new  small 
park  in  some  crowded  quarter,  the  cry  soon  goes 
up  that  you  are  depriving  the  people  of  their  homes 
and  that  they  will  have  nowhere  to  live.  There 
has  never  been  a  case  in  this  country  where  the 
population  thus  displaced  has  suffered.  They 
quickly  adapt  themselves  to  the  new  conditions. 
In  New  York,  in  connection  with  one  public 
improvement,  10,000  persons  were  displaced  at 


HOUSING    REFORM 

practically  one  time  and  they  found  homes  without 
difficulty. 

Another  erroneous  belief  is  that  good  houses  do 
not  pay.  It  is  true  that  many  so-called  model 
tenement  enterprises  have  not  paid.  This  has 
not  been  because  the  houses  were  improved 
buildings,  but  because  they  had  been  either  un- 
wisely planned,  extravagantly  built  or  badly 
managed. 

A  picturesque  view  frequently  encountered  is 
that  dilapidation  is  a  serious  evil.  As  a  rule,  it 
means  at  most  discomfort.  It  seldom  means 
illness  or  disease.  The  popular  conception  (cer- 
tainly the  newspaper  one)  of  bad  housing  condi- 
tions is  some  small  old  building  in  dilapidated 
condition.  This  is  only  a  minor  evil  compared 
with  the  really  serious  conditions  which  frequently 
exist  in  the  tall,  modern,  expensive  looking  tene- 
ments of  our  larger  cities,  fair  on  the  outside  but 
whited  sepulchres,  containing  within  dark  rooms 
and  narrow  airshafts,  poisonous  plumbing  and 
countless  other  evils.  A  leaky  roof  is  only  an 
intermittent  discomfort,  but  unventilated  rooms 
and  bad  plumbing  are  subtle  and  sure  destroyers 
of  health.  Housing  reform  is  not  to  be  sought 
upon  a  basis  of  aesthetic  advance.  It  must  rest 
on  a  much  firmer  foundation,  that  of  public  health 
and  the  stability  and  social  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity. 

That  unsanitary  houses  should  be  destroyed 
is  another  mistaken  belief.  This  is  the  rock  on 

20 


SOME    POPULAR    FALLACIES 

which  the  bark  of  housing  reform  often  founders. 
Frequently  the  first  effort  made  is  to  secure  the 
enactment  of  laws  which  will  permit  the  destruc- 
tion of  unsanitary  buildings.  A  less  drastic  and 
equally  effective  method  is  simply  to  prohibit 
the  occupancy  of  such  houses.  If  there  are  houses 
which  are  manifestly  unfit  for  human  habitation, 
people  should  not  be  permitted  to  dwell  in  them. 
Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  their  destruction. 
The  empty  building  itself  is  not  dangerous.  Why, 
therefore,  should  the  state  destroy  property  of 
this  kind?  The  attempt  to  do  so  creates  an 
opposition,  on  the  part  of  property  owners,  which 
often  sets  back  many  years  the  whole  movement 
for  housing  reform. 

Probably  one  of  the  most  interesting  fallacies 
of  all  those  entertained  is  the  one  that  rear  tene- 
ments are  in  themselves  bad.  I  suppose  that 
there  is  hardly  an  individual  who  would  not  at 
once  express  the  opinion  that  the  worst  type  of 
tenement  house  is  the  rear  tenement.  Such, 
however,  is  emphatically  not  the  case.  There  are 
bad  rear  tenements,  but  there  are  many  good 
ones — many  indeed  which  are  far  better  to  live  in 
than  many  front  houses.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
fact  that  the  building  is  located  in  the  rear  away 
from  the  street  which  makes  the  house  bad  in 
itself.  The  determination  of  whether  it  is  good 
or  bad  rests  upon  other  considerations — the  same 
considerations  indeed  which  apply  to  a  front 
house;  namely,  the  amount  of  open  space  sur- 

21 


HOUSING    REFORM 

rounding  it,  the  provision  for  adequate  light  and 
ventilation,  reasonable  fire  protection  and  proper 
maintenance  and  care  of  the  premises.  There  is 
a  belief  quite  prevalent  that  the  fact  that  the  rear 
building  is  hidden  away  from  the  street  and  access 
to  it  must  be  had  through  the  front  building, 
leads  to  immorality  and  deeds  of  darkness.  This, 
however,  is  only  a  belief.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
experience  of  any  city  to  substantiate  such  a  view. 
I  suppose  the  reason  why  the  rear  tenement  has 
such  a  bad  name  is  because  of  the  failure  of  the 
public  to  carefully  analyze  the  causes  of  bad 
conditions.  It  is  true  that  the  death  rate  in 
many  of  the  rear  tenements  has  often  been  much 
higher  than  it  has  been  in  many  of  the  front 
houses.  To  argue  from  this,  post  hoc  ergo  propter 
hoc,  that  the  high  death  rate  in  such  buildings  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  rear  houses  is  singu- 
larly naive.  A  careful  study  of  the  facts  shows 
that  the  high  death  rate  in  many  of  these  buildings 
is  due  to  a  variety  of  causes.  Because  they  have 
no  view  of  the  street,  they  naturally  command  a 
lower  rental,  just  as  the  rear  apartments  of  a 
front  building  command  lower  rentals  than  the 
street  apartments.  Moreover,  they  are  generally 
old  buildings  and  are  invariably  provided  with 
privies  and  privy  sinks  instead  of  the  modern 
plumbing  and  sanitary  conveniences  found  in 
front  buildings;  they  are  seldom  provided  with 
water  supply  inside  the  buildings.  For  these 
reasons  rents  are  lower  and  such  buildings  are 

22 


SOME    POPULAR    FALLACIES 

usually  occupied  by  the  poorest  elements  of  the 
community.  That  the  death  rate  should  be 
higher  among  these  classes,  handicapped  by  pov- 
erty, ill-nourished,  and  having  a  constant  struggle 
to  make  both  ends  meet,  is  not  surprising.  It  is 
manifestly  misleading  to  charge  these  potent  influ- 
ences to  the  rear  tenement  as  such. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  rear  houses  that 
are  distinctly  bad — "back-to-back"  tenements, 
so-called;  buildings  which  practically  abut  each 
other  in  the  rear,  sometimes  with  but  two  or 
three  inches  between  them,  shutting  out  light 
and  ventilation  and  creating  various  kinds  of 
unsanitary  conditions.  Such  dwellings  should  not 
be  tolerated.  Bad  rear  tenements  should  not  be 
allowed  to  be  occupied  any  more  than  bad  front 
tenements.  But  there  should  be  no  distinction 
made  because  of  the  fact  that  one  is  on  the  street 
and  the  other  in  the  yard. 

Finally  comes  the  often-encountered  view  that 
the  main  criterion  of  the  presence  or  absence  of 
bad  conditions  is  to  be  found  in  the  death  rate. 
To  argue  from  a  low  death  rate  that  housing 
conditions  are  satisfactory  is  misleading.  It  is 
equally  misleading  to  argue  that  a  high  death 
rate  is  due  primarily  to  bad  housing  conditions,^ 
So  many  elements  enter  into  the  death  rate  that 
it  is  unsafe  to  generalize  from  it.  In  the  first 
place,  the  death  rate  is  a  ratio  between  two  classes 
of  facts:  the  population  and  the  number  of  deaths 
in  a  given  year.  The  latter  fact  is  generally 

23 


HOUSING    REFORM 

accurately  known;  the  former  fact  is  almost 
never  accurately  known  except  just  at  the  time 
when  a  census  has  been  taken.  The  population, 
a  very  important  element  in  figuring  the  death 
rate,  is  generally  therefore  an  estimate.  It  is  a 
frequent  trick  of  a  municipal  administration  when 
it  desires  to  make  a  good  showing  in  regard  to  the 
death  rate,  to  over-estimate  the  city's  growth  of 
population.  This  is  pretty  safe,  as  no  one  really 
knows  what  the  city's  population  is,  and  figures 
that  are  put  out  can  not  be  successfully  disputed. 
Besides,  there  is  an  inherent  tendency  in  most  peo- 
ple to  feel  a  sense  of  complacent  pride  in  the  growth 
of  their  own  community,  and  few  citizens  are  in- 
clined to  dispute  the  accuracy  of  figures  which  show 
what  seems  to  most  minds  desirable  advancement. 
Other  elements  which  enter  into  death  rates  are 
the  nature  of  occupation,  race,  diet,  industrial  con- 
ditions, and  an  infinite  variety  of  influences. 
Furthermore,  it  is  not  necessary  to  base  one's 
judgment  with  regard  to  the  presence  or  absence 
of  adverse  housing  conditions  upon  questions  of 
death  rate.  Why,  therefore,  pay  attention  to  it? 
If  there  are  bad  housing  conditions  it  is  a  matter 
easily  susceptible  of  proof.  Unsanitary  privies, 
dark  rooms,  lack  of  drainage,  cellar  dwellings, 
overcrowding  and  all  the  other  more  frequent 
manifestations  of  bad  housing,  if  they  exist,  can 
be  shown.  So  long  as  they  are  there  the  necessity 
for  remedying  them  exists.  The  appeal  to  the 
death  rate  becomes  of  no  moment. 

24 


Ill 

CONGESTION  AND  OVERCROWDING 


CERTAIN  social  problems  are  inextricably 
interwoven  with  the  housing  problem.  Of 
these,  congestion  and  overcrowding  are 
two  of  the  more  important.  The  terms  are  not 
synonymous,  nor  are  they  very  well  understood. 
We  talk  about  crowding  and  overcrowding,  and 
congestion  of  population.  What  is  meant?  Where 
does  crowding  end  and  overcrowding  begin? 
When  may  a  district  be  said  to  be  congested? 
How  many  people  should  occupy  an  acre  of  land? 
Is  there  any  arbitrary  standard  that  can  be 
determined  upon?  Are  we  all  sure  that  it  is 
injurious  to  a  community  to  have,  for  example, 
500  people  to  the  acre?  And  if  500  may  be 
permitted,  where  is  the  line  to  be  drawn?  Is 
750  too  many,  or  indeed  1000?  Who  is  to  deter- 
mine? 

Frankly,  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  arbi- 
trary or  fixed  standard  that  can  be  adopted.  In 
some  parts  of  China  where  the  number  of  people 
to  the  acre  is  very  much  less  than  it  is  in  many 
parts  of  modern  New  York,  conditions  of  living 
are  infinitely  worse  from  the  point  of  view  of 

27 


HOUSING    REFORM 

overcrowding  and  congestion.  It  makes  a  very 
great  difference  whether  1000  people  to  the  acre 
are  housed  in  buildings  one  and  two  stories  high 
or  whether  they  are  housed  in  buildings  five  and 
six  stories  high.  There  may  easily  be  500  and 
even  1000  people  to  the  acre  living  in  high  build- 
ings ten  or  twenty  stories  high  and  yet  there  be  no 
conditions  of  overcrowding  whatever.  In  some 
high-class  hotels  in  our  larger  cities  it  will  be 
found  that  there  are  over  1200  persons  to  the 
acre,  yet  no  sensible  person  dreams  of  calling  such 
conditions,  conditions  of  overcrowding  or  con- 
gestion. 

Congestion  and  overcrowding  are  not  to  be 
determined  by  the  number  of  people  living  on  a 
given  area  of  land.  The  vital  question  is  the 
distribution  of  such  population,  the  actual  close 
proximity  in  which  people  live. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  overcrowding.  These 
should  be  carefully  distinguished.  The  first  is 
the  overcrowding  of  limited  areas  of  land  with  an 
undue  population,  resulting  in  congestion.  This 
is  the  form  of  overcrowding  with  which  we  are 
more  familiar  in  American  cities,  especially  in 
the  larger  ones,  but  is  not  the  form  that  is  gener- 
ally meant  in  the  discussion  of  this  question. 
Overcrowding,  as  it  is  known  in  English  and 
European  cities,  concerns  itself  almost  entirely 
with  the  occupation  by  an  undue  number  of 
persons  of  a  limited  space  in  rooms  or  apartments. 
This  is  the  great  problem  in  London  and,  to  a 

28 


CONGESTION    AND   OVERCROWDING 

somewhat  lesser  extent,  in  some  of  the  larger 
English  and  Scotch  cities. 

Room  overcrowding  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  land  overcrowding;  but  here,  too,  there  are 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  establishing  arbitrary 
standards.  What  constitutes  room  overcrowding? 
The  only  standard  that  has  been  adopted  hereto- 
fore in  this  country  has  been  the  standard  of  a 
minimum  amount  of  cubic  air  space.  In  most 
cities  this  standard  has  been  400  cubic  feet  of  air 
for  each  adult,  and  200  cubic  feet  of  air  for  each 
child  under  twelve  years  of  age  occupying  a  room. 
Such  a  standard  is  valueless.  To  illustrate:  A 
bedroom  seven  feet  wide  and  ten  feet  long  and  nine 
feet  high  contains  630  cubic  feet  of  air.  Let  us  as- 
sume it  is  well  lighted  and  ventilated,  with  a  large 
window  opening  directly  on  a  broad  street,  and 
that  the  room  communicates  with  other  rooms 
with  plentiful  windows  and  through  ventilation. 
No  better  bedroom  could  be  devised  from  the  point 
of  view  of  health  and  sanitation,  and  yet  a  man 
and  his  wife,  or  two  boys  fourteen  years  of  age, 
could  not  under  such  a  requirement  of  law  legally 
sleep  in  this  room,  because  there  is  not  400  cubic 
feet  of  air  for  each. 

If  400  cubic  feet  is  not  the  proper  minimum, 
what  is  the  proper  minimum?  Shall  it  be  600  or 
800  or  200?  Study  of  the  problems  involved 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that  not  only  the  question 
of  cubic  air  space  must  be  considered,  but  far 
more  important  must  be  the  kind  of  air  supplied 

29 


HOUSING    REFORM 

to  the  room  and  the  frequency  of  its  renewal.  It 
would  be  far  better  to  permit  a  family  to  sleep  in 
a  room  containing  but  400  cubic  feet  of  air  of 
excellent  quality  and  frequently  renewed,  than 
to  permit  them  to  sleep  in  a  room  containing  four 
times  the  amount  where  the  renewal  was  not  so 
frequent  nor  the  source  of  original  supply  so 
satisfactory.  It  makes  a  very  great  difference 
whether  the  air  comes  from  a  broad  street  or 
from  a  narrow  alley,  from  a  large  backyard  or 
from  a  narrow  air-shaft.  These  considerations 
are  generally  lost  sight  of  in  the  discussion  of  this 
problem.  This  question  like  the  question  of  land 
overcrowding  can  not  be  determined  by  any  arbi- 
trary standard. 

But  while  our  theoretical  standards  may  vary, 
and  while  workable  legal  limits  are  yet  to  be 
determined,  there  are  undebatable  relief  measures 
which  may  be  undertaken.  The  problem  of 
congestion  is  largely  one  of  distribution,  both 
within  and  without  the  city.  Every  effort  should 
be  made  to  encourage  people  to  leave  the  crowded 
quarters  of  the  large  cities  and  return  to  country 
or  suburban  life.  This  is  easy  to  say  but  difficult 
to  accomplish.  The  causes  which  have  led  to  the 
concentration  in  the  cities  of  this  large  population 
militate  against  its  distribution. 

As  a  rule,  people  live  in  cities  because  they  like 
city  life;  because  they  find  there  social  and 
industrial  opportunities  which  are  not  to  be  found 
in  country  districts.  Those  persons  in  cities, 

30 


CONGESTION    AND   OVERCROWDING 

however,  who  have  a  liking  and  aptitude  for  rural 
life  should  be  encouraged  to  move  to  the  country. 
To  be  effective  this  should  be  done  in  an  organized 
way  and  with  a  definite  realization  of  what  is 
necessary.  The  main  thing  is  to  insure  to  them 
equal  or  better  opportunities  for  earning  their 
livelihood.  Educational  and  social  advantages 
must  be  provided  as  well,  if  a  movement  of  this 
kind  is  to  succeed. 

When  this  has  been  done,  however,  and  those 
in  the  cities  who  can  be  induced  to  seek  their 
fortunes  in  the  country  have  done  so,  there  will 
still  remain  a  vast  number  of  people  who  must  be 
housed  in  cities.  The  great  majority  of  the  work- 
ing people  will  always  live  there  and  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  see  that  they  are  housed  under 
proper  conditions. 

Not  only  should  efforts  be  made  to  remove 
people  from  the  city  to  the  country,  but  attempts 
should  be  made,  so  far  as  may  be  practicable,  to 
induce  persons  living  in  crowded  districts  to  move 
to  the  outlying  sections  of  large  cities.  Through 
an  organized  campaign  there  should  be  brought 
home  to  them  the  advantages  thus  to  be  found: 
the  cheaper  rents  attainable,  the  better  light  and 
air,  the  better  school  advantages,  the  opportunity 
for  healthful  play  for  their  children,  the  possibility 
of  quiet  and  of  individual  life. 

To  thousands,  however,  this  appeal  can  not  be 
made.  Neither  country  nor  suburban  life  is  at- 
tractive to  them.  Their  enjoyment  is  found  in  the 

3' 


HOUSING    REFORM 

stir  of  city  life,  the  crowd,  the  constant  social  ac- 
tivity. The  easier  opportunities  for  employment, 
the  theatres,  the  lighted  streets,  the  saloons,  the 
lodge  meetings,  the  dancing  academies,  churches, 
settlements,  all  prove  potent  attractions,  and  only 
a  comparative  few  of  the  ordinary  tenement  popu- 
lation have  any  desire  to  leave  these  things  for  the 
advantages  of  life  in  the  less  densely  settled  dis- 
tricts. 

In  addition  to  attempts  to  get  people  out  of  the 
city  and  to  distribute  them  within  the  city,  if 
congestion  of  population  is  to  be  overcome  and 
overcrowding  prevented,  efforts  addressed  to  the 
problems  of  land  overcrowding  and  room  over- 
crowding, separately,  must  be  made.  There  must 
be  devised  some  practicable  plan  of  restriction  of 
population  within  the  city  itself  and  some  adequate 
method  of  preventing  room  overcrowding.  The 
only  practicable  way  to  remedy  land  overcrowding, 
so  far  as  the  future  is  concerned,  is  to  limit  the 
height  of  dwellings  and  also  the  area  of  land  that 
may  be  built  upon,  thus  reducing  the  number  of 
people  who  can  occupy  it. 

This,  however,  will  not  remedy  existing  condi- 
tions. The  only  way  that  these  can  be  improved  is 
by  tearing  down  large  areas  and  rebuilding,  follow- 
ing the  precedents  established  in  European  cities. 
Thus  far  no  such  scheme  has  been  carried  out  in 
any  American  city.  The  chief  obstacle  to  it  is  its 
excessive  cost.  When  we  consider  that  an  ordi- 
nary block  in  the  tenement  districts  on  the  Lower 

32 


CONGESTION    AND   OVERCROWDING 

East  Side  of  New  York  is  worth  from  $1,000,000 
to  $1,500,000,  it  is  obvious  that  the  city  can  not 
embark  upon  improvement  schemes  of  this  nature 
to  a  very  great  extent  without  imposing  insupport- 
able burdens  upon  the  taxpayers. 

Room  overcrowding  is  bound  up  with  another 
social  problem;  namely,  the  lodger  evil.  This 
prevails  chiefly  among  the  foreign  elements  of  the 
population,  more  especially  among  the  Italians 
and  Poles,  and  in  some  cities,  the  Hungarians  and 
other  Slavic  races.  It  also  prevails  among  the 
Jews  in  the  larger  cities.  It  is  fraught  with  great 
danger  to  the  social  fabric  of  the  country.  It 
means  the  undermining  of  family  life;  often  the 
breaking  down  of  domestic  standards.  It  fre- 
quently leads  to  the  breaking  up  of  homes  and 
families,  to  the  downfall  and  subsequent  degraded 
career  of  young  women,  to  grave  immoralities— 
in  a  word,  to  the  profanation  of  the  home. 

Its  economic  consequences  are  also  serious.  To 
it  may  be  charged,  in  large  degree,  the  high  rentals 
which  prevail  in  many  cities.  Probably  no  more 
curious  instance  occurs  of  the  peculiar  intertwin- 
ing of  cause  and  effect.  Often,  the  inadequate 
earnings  of  the  poor  immigrant  make  it  necessary 
to  supplement  the  family  income  by  taking  in 
boarders  or  lodgers.  In  many  cases,  such  neces- 
sity does  not  exist,  but  the  parsimonious  habits 
of  the  people  lead  them  to  adopt  this  way  of 
adding  dollar  to  dollar.  It  is  hard  to  tell  to  what 
extent  the  practice  is  due  to  necessity  and  to 
3  33 


HOUSING    REFORM 

what  extent  to  avarice.  The  result  is  the  same  in 
both  cases.  The  effect  soon  is  to  raise  rents. 
Landlords  are  quick  to  realize  that  their  tenants 
have  augmented  the  family  earnings  by  sub- 
letting a  portion  of  their  rooms.  The  rooms  at 
once  become  more  valuable  because  a  larger  rev- 
enue can  thus  be  secured  and  rents  are  promptly 
raised.  Thus,  in  a  short  time,  the  tenant  is  no 
better  off  than  before;  in  fact,  worse,  because  the 
practice  has  spread  and  standards  of  living  have 
been  readjusted.  The  total  family  income,  though 
now  greater,  is  still  relatively  where  it  was  before, 
because  of  the  increased  cost  of  living. 

No  adequate  method  has  as  yet  been  devised  of 
effectively  preventing  room  overcrowding.  The 
attempts  made  thus  far  have  all  been  in  the  direc- 
tion of  limiting  by  law  the  number  of  people  occu- 
pying a  room  with  reference  to  the  amount  of 
cubic  air  space  in  it.  Unfortunately,  such  a 
provision  is  almost  impossible  of  enforcement. 
In  order  to  enforce  it,  inspections  must  be  made 
at  night.  It  is  only  then  that  the  lodgers  and 
boarders,  the  chief  causes  of  overcrowding,  are  to 
be  found.  To  question  the  tenement  dwellers  in 
the  daytime  with  regard  to  their  practice  of  taking 
in  boarders  or  lodgers  is  to  ask  them  to  convict 
themselves,  and  such  investigations  are  obviously 
of  little  value.  To  adequately  carry  on  night 
inspections  of  the  homes  of  the  poor  would  re- 
quire an  army  of  inspectors.  It  would  involve, 
moreover,  an  invasion  of  the  privacy  of  the  home, 

34 


CONGESTION    AND    OVERCROWDING 

which  is  repugnant  to  American  institutions. 
The  routing  out  of  workingmen's  families  after 
midnight  in  order  to  determine  whether  they 
have  boarders  or  lodgers  living  with  them  would 
be  intolerable. 

To  cope  with  the  problem  of  overcrowding  and 
the  lodger  evil  effectively  the  law  should  place 
upon  the  landlord  the  responsibility  for  an  undue 
number  of  people  in  his  house,  as  it  has  already 
placed  upon  him  in  the  case  of  women  of  ill- 
repute  responsibility  for  their  character.  In 
certain  classes  of  tenements  the  taking  in  of 
lodgers  or  boarders,  except  with  the  written 
consent  of  the  landlord,  must  be  prohibited  and 
the  landlord  must  be  held  responsible  for  any 
departure  from  this  rule.  This  principle  has  not 
as  yet  been  recognized  by  any  American  city, 
but  it  is  one  that  must  be  established  if  this  evil 
is  to  be  overcome. 


35 


IV 

THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  A  THREE-FOLD 

ONE 


IV 

THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  A  THREE-FOLD 

ONE 

THE  housing  problem  is  a  three-fold  one 
and  concerns  the  future,  the  present  and 
the  past.  I  put  the  future  first. 

Effort  at  housing  reform  should  be  directed 
first  toward  preventing  the  erection  of  buildings 
which  are  not  suitable  for  people  to  live  in.  It 
is  better  to  shut  the  stable  door  before  the  horse 
is  stolen.  The  first  duty  is  to  safeguard  the  future, 
to  prevent  the  growth  of  new  slums,  to  prevent 
the  creation  of  types  of  buildings  which  will  later 
become  a  menace  to  the  community. 

The  housing  problem  also  concerns  the  present. 
Provision  must  be  made  for  the  proper  main- 
tenance of  all  houses.  The  state  must  see  to  it 
that  the  dwellings  of  the  poor — of  those  members 
of  the  community  least  able  to  protect  themselves 
— are  maintained  in  a  sanitary  condition,  are 
kept  in  repair,  are  provided  with  the  necessities 
of  decent  living. 

Housing  reform  also  concerns  the  past.  It 
must  remedy  the  mistakes  of  earlier  years;  it 
must  make  up  for  the  neglect  and  carelessness  of 

39 


HOUSING    REFORM 

preceding  generations,  and  must  bring  about  such 
changes  in  the  older  buildings  as  are  necessary 
to  make  them  fit  for  human  habitation  and  pre- 
vent their  being  an  influence  for  disease  and  death. 

The  housing  problem  is  in  another  sense  a  three- 
fold one  and  must  be  considered  from  three  dif- 
ferent points  of  view:  the  sanitary,  the  structural, 
the  social.  From  the  point  of  view  of  sanitation, 
effort  at  housing  reform  should  concern  itself 
with  provision  for  adequate  light  and  sufficient 
ventilation  in  all  buildings,  for  a  sufficient  water 
supply  within  the  houses,  preferably  in  each 
apartment,  and  for  proper  sanitary  conveniences. 
Provision  must  be  made  for  the  collection  of 
garbage,  and  other  waste  material  with  sufficient 
frequency,  for  the  cleanliness  of  those  parts  of  the 
building  used  in  common  by  several  families,  with 
fixed  responsibility  for  their  proper  maintenance; 
and  where  many  families  live  in  one  house,  for 
the  employment  of  competent  housekeepers  or 
janitors  to  look  after  the  building.  In  the  older 
houses  privy  vaults  and  sinks  must  be  abolished 
and  more  modern  conveniences  substituted;  anti- 
quated earthenware  drains  must  be  done  away 
with. 

From  the  structural  point  of  view,  provision 
should  be  made  for  reasonable  protection  in  case 
of  fire.  Where  many  people  dwell  in  one  building, 
fire-escapes  that  will  permit  quick  and  ready 
egress  must  be  furnished.  The  determination  of 
what  is  necessary  must  depend  upon  the  number 

40 


HOUSING    PROBLEM    A    THREE-FOLD   ONE 

of  people  living  in  the  building,  the  nature  of  its 
construction  and  the  effectiveness  of  the  local 
fire-department  service. 

In  future  buildings  methods  of  construction 
should  be  required  that  will  minimize  the  danger 
from  fire.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  one  should  avoid 
arbitrary  standards.  There  is  a  popular  concep- 
tion that  fire-proof  buildings  are  essential.  They 
are  not.  To  decree  that  every  tenement  house 
erected  in  the  future  shall  be  of  fire-proof  con- 
struction may  be  a  great  mistake.  The  result 
may  be,  as  it  has  been  in  some  places,  the  com- 
plete cessation  of  the  building  of  new  houses  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  poorer  members  of  the 
community,  resulting  in  a  dearth  of  living  accom- 
modations, forcing  up  rents  and  compelling  people 
to  live  in  the  older  and  more  dilapidated  buildings; 
thus  defeating  the  very  purposes  of  those  who  had 
brought  about  such  enactment.  Requirements  of 
such  nature  must  be  reasonable;  they  must  address 
themselves  to  the  facts. 

The  decision  must  be  based  upon  a  study  of  the 
frequency  of  fires  in  a  given  locality,  the  number 
of  lives  thus  lost  annually,  the  cost  of  building 
construction,  land  values,  rents  and  similar  ques- 
tions. Even  in  the  great  city  of  New  York,  in 
its  most  congested  districts,  where  land  values  are 
at  their  highest,  where  the  population  of  each 
block  frequently  ranges  from  2500  to  3000  people 
and  where  the  houses  are  built  up  solidly  in  rows 
of  six-story  tenements  with  twenty  families  in 

41 


HOUSING    REFORM 

each,  the  most  ardent  advocates  of  housing  reform 
have  not  deemed  it  wise  to  enact  that  all  future 
tenement  houses  even  in  those  sections  shall  be  of 
fire-proof  construction.  Instead,  a  type  of  build- 
ing has  been  permitted  to  be  erected  in  which 
the  special  danger  points  have  special  safeguards 
thrown  around  them. 

From  the  social  point  of  view,  effort  at  housing 
reform  must  concern  itself  with  a  vast  host  of 
questions:  the  questions  of  overcrowding,  con- 
gestion of  population,  the  lodger  evil,  the  adapta- 
tion of  diverse  foreign  peoples  to  American  con- 
ditions, the  difficulties  of  adjustment  to  the  new 
environment  with  the  impediment  of  a  strange 
language,  the  lack  of  educational  opportunities, 
the  sweating  system — that  evil  by  which  homes  are 
turned  into  workshops  and  outside  workers  are 
brought  in  to  intrude  upon  the  family  life — the 
lack  of  opportunities  for  healthful  recreation  and 
play,  and  the  difficulty  of  ordinary  social  inter- 
course in  the  cramped  surroundings.  These  are 
but  some  of  the  more  important  questions  which 
must  be  carefully  studied.  Each  is  a  problem  in 
itself,  but  each  is  closely  interwoven  with  the 
housing  problem.  The  housing  problem  should 
not  be  considered  without  reference  to  them,  nor 
can  these  problems  be  adequately  treated  without 
reference  to  the  home  environment. 

The  housing  problem  is  in  another  sense,  still, 
a  three-fold  one.  It  must  be  considered  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  landlord,  the  tenant  and  the 

42 


HOUSING    PROBLEM    A    THREE-FOLD   ONE 

community.  There  is  grave  danger  that  housing 
reformers  in  considering  the  welfare  of  the  tenant 
may  fail  to  consider  the  point  of  view  of  the  land- 
lord. It  must  be  clearly  recognized  that  the 
landlord  has  a  right  to  a  legitimate  profit  on  his 
investment.  On  the  other  hand  he  must  not  be 
permitted  to  wring  an  undue  profit  from  it  at  the 
expense  of  his  tenants.  There  are  all  kinds  of 
landlords  and  all  kinds  of  tenants.  Many  owners 
promptly  make  repairs,  provide  every  reasonable 
convenience  for  the  occupants  and  take  pride  in 
keeping  their  property  in  first-class  condition. 

But  there  are  also  landlords  who  neglect  their 
houses,  who  make  no  repairs  except  under  com- 
pulsion, who  care  little  whether  their  tenants 
suffer  inconveniences  and  sanitary  evils,  and 
whose  chief  interest  is  in  obtaining  from  their 
properties  the  largest  possible  return  upon  their 
investment.  Similarly  with  regard  to  the  tenants: 
there  are  good  tenants  and  bad  tenants.  The 
conception  of  some  landlords  that  most  tenants 
are  destructive,  disorderly,  anxious  to  get  all  they 
can  out  of  the  landlord,  willing  to  leave  with 
many  months'  rent  unpaid,  is  applicable  only  to 
a  limited  number. 

Finally,  regard  must  be  had  for  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  The  injury  caused  to  the  whole 
social  fabric,  the  effect  of  bad  housing  conditions 
in  producing  vice,  crime,  poverty,  disease,  sick- 
ness, death,  must  be  weighed  and  considered. 
The  community  has  an  interest  in  such  questions 

43 


HOUSING    REFORM 

quite  equal  to  that  of  the  landlord  and  the  tenant. 
All  these  various  interests  must  be  fairly  consid- 
ered. No  one  must  unduly  preponderate. 

The  housing  problem  is  in  another  sense  a  three- 
fold one,  and  must  be  considered  with  regard  to 
the  existing  conditions,  the  laws,  and  their 
administration.  Beyond  all  other  things  effort 
at  housing  reform  must  proceed  upon  carefully 
ascertained  exact  knowledge  of  the  conditions 
which  require  remedy.  The  laws  which  are  put 
into  effect  to  remedy  those  conditions  must  not 
be  arbitrary  enactments  based  upon  the  theoretical 
views  of  social  enthusiasts,  but  must  be  the  result 
of  carefully  worked-out,  practical  consideration  of 
the  problems  involved,  and  adapted  to  the  peculiar 
local  conditions  it  is  sought  to  remedy. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  many  communities — and 
a  very  unfortunate  one — to  copy  in  a  rather  unim- 
aginative way  some  law  enacted  in  another  city, 
acting  apparently  upon  the  hypothesis  that  what  is 
good  for  one  place  is  good  for  another.  Housing 
legislation  upon  such  a  basis  will  not  succeed,  and 
should  not  succeed.  While  it  is  true  that  each 
city  should  take  advantage  to  the  fullest  extent 
of  the  experience  of  other  cities,  studying  the 
laws  that  have  been  there  enacted  and  embodying 
in  their  own  statutes  their  best  features,  the  fact 
remains  that  the  wisest  law  is  one  which  is  exactly 
fitted  to  meet  the  peculiar  local  conditions. 

It  is  useless  to  put  forth  time  and  effort  in 
securing  the  enactment  of  legislation  unless  the 

44 


HOUSING    PROBLEM    A    THREE-FOLD    ONE 

means  are  provided  for  its  prompt  and  thorough 
enforcement.  It  is  a  common  experience  to  find 
communities  enacting  elaborate  laws  for  the  reg- 
ulation of  social  evils  of  various  kinds  but  fail- 
ing to  provide  machinery  for  their  enforcement. 
This  may  satisfy  a  desire  for  intellectual  activity 
on  the  part  of  groups  of  enthusiasts,  but  can  not 
go  far  toward  remedying  adverse  social  conditions. 
Nearly  every  state  is  thus  encumbered  with  nu- 
merous laws  that  are  never  or  seldom  enforced. 

Not  only  must  the  administrative  machinery 
be  provided  for  by  law  but  adequate  financial 
provision  for  its  support  must  be  made  by  the 
local  authorities. 

A  lesson  in  this  regard  is  to  be  learned  from 
New  York's  experience.  Eight  years  ago  a  com- 
prehensive scheme  for  the  improvement  of  the 
older  tenement  houses  in  the  more  essential 
particulars  was  provided  in  the  Tenement  House 
Act  of  1901.  Owners  were  required  to  remove 
unsanitary  privy  sinks,  to  cut  windows  into  dark 
rooms,  to  lighten  dark  halls,  to  concrete  cellars 
and  to  make  other  structural  changes.  They 
were  given  a  year's  time  in  which  to  do  this. 
Adequate  administrative  machinery  was  provided 
through  the  creation  of  a  separate  city  department 
known  as  the  Tenement  House  Department,  one 
of  whose  functions  was  to  see  that  these  changes 
were  carried  out.  Only  now,  however,  eight 
years  later,  has  this  department  received  from 
the  local  authorities  a  sufficient  appropriation  to 

45 


HOUSING    REFORM 

enable  it  to  do  this  work.  The  result  is  that  the 
larger  part  of  the  work  has  remained  undone 
during  all  of  this  time  and  thousands  of  the  city's 
population  have  had  to  continue  life  under  those 
adverse  conditions  which  the  legislation  had  de- 
creed eight  years  ago  should  cease. 


46 


HOW  TO  START  A  MOVEMENT  FOR  HOUS- 
ING REFORM 


HOW  TO  START  A  MOVEMENT  FOR  HOUS- 
ING REFORM 

THE  failure  to  remedy  bad  housing  conditions 
in  many  communities  has  been  due  not  so 
much  to  lack  of  understanding  of  the  con- 
ditions themselves,  as  to  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
best  method  of  remedying  them.  The  first  step 
is  the  formation  of  a  committee  of  public  spirited 
citizens,  conscious  of  the  dangerous  effects  of  bad 
environment  and  anxious  to  remove,  so  far  as  may 
be  practicable,  the  adverse  conditions  under  which 
many  people  are  compelled  to  live.  Such  a  com- 
mittee should  be  carefully  selected  and  organ- 
ized. Its  function  is  a  two-fold  one:  first,  to  as- 
certain the  facts  and  formulate  the  remedies; 
second,  to  educate  the  community  with  regard  to 
the  conditions  discovered  and  the  means  at  hand 
for  their  amelioration.  It  must  therefore  be  a 
body  sufficiently  wise  to  prosecute  its  inquiry  and 
urge  its  reforms  in  a  practical  and  sane  way,  and 
also  one  that  will  command  public  confidence. 

As  the  questions  with  which  it  is  to  deal  are 
those  of  building  construction,  architectural  plan- 
ning, fire  protection,  sanitation  and  modern  social 
4  49 


HOUSING    REFORM 

problems,  the  committee  should  preferably  be 
composed  of  leading  representatives  of  the  pro- 
fessions actively  dealing  with  such  problems. 
Where  it  is  possible,  it  should  have  among  its 
members  a  practical  architect,  a  builder  of  the 
better  grade,  a  sanitary  engineer  or  high  grade 
plumber,  the  chief  of  the  fire  department,  the 
superintendent  of  buildings  or  similar  official,  a 
leading  physician,  a  leading  lawyer,  a  prominent 
real  estate  man,  a  leading  social  worker — either 
the  head  of  a  settlement  or  of  a  local  charitable 
society  familiar  with  the  conditions  under  which 
the  poor  live — and  such  other  prominent  citizens 
as  would  naturally  be  interested  in  a  movement 
of  this  kind  from  the  humanitarian  point  of  view 
and  whose  standing  in  the  community  would  add 
weight  to  the  committee. 

But  the  essential  element  for  success  is  an 
efficient  and  homogeneous  committee  that  com- 
mands public  confidence  and  can  readily  work 
together.  No  variety  of  professional  experience 
should  outweigh  this  essential  element. 

In  selecting  the  personnel,  care  should  be  taken 
to  avoid  the  appointment  of  public  officials  who 
are  merely  politicians  and  neither  interested  in 
the  inquiry  nor  actively  familiar  with  the  work 
of  their  own  departments.  It  is  important  that 
the  various  representatives  mentioned  should  not 
only  be  deemed  representative  by  the  members  of 
their  own  professions,  but  also  by  the  general 
public.  Too  much  emphasis  can  not  be  placed 


A    MOVEMENT    FOR    HOUSING    REFORM 

upon  the  desirability  of  having  the  committee 
so  constituted  that  it  will  seem  to  the  public  a 
practical  body.  As  a  rule  it  is  desirable  that  it 
should  be  composed  entirely  of  men. 

The  best  committee,  however  constituted,  will 
make  little  progress  unless  it  secures  a  competent 
executive.  The  difficulty  of  securing  such  men 
has  been  one  of  the  main  reasons  why  the  improve- 
ment of  housing  conditions  has  not  made  more 
rapid  progress  in  many  American  cities.  The 
right  man  must  combine  so  many  different 
qualities.  He  must  understand  practical  building 
construction;  he  must  understand  plumbing  and 
modern  sanitation;  the  essential  principles  of 
light  and  ventilation;  he  must  be  familiar  with 
the  conditions  under  which  the  poor  live;  must 
be  able  to  discriminate  between  necessities  and 
conveniences;  must  have  a  sense  of  proportion,  an 
appreciation  of  values — of  the  relation  between 
what  is  possible  and  what  is  desirable;  the  ability 
to  present  facts  in  a  way  that  will  be  convincing 
to  the  public;  a  knowledge  of  the  purposes, 
methods  and  scope  of  social  investigations,  and 
an  ability  to  handle  the  results  obtained  from 
such  inquiries.  He  must  also  possess  the  faculty 
of  working  harmoniously  with  various  groups  of 
people.  And  above  all  he  must  master  in  advance 
the  arguments  of  his  opponents. 

Every  movement  for  housing  reform  is  a  battle. 
Most  of  them  are  protracted  wars  extending  over 
many  years.  The  leader  of  the  campaign  must 

5' 


HOUSING    REFORM 

have  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  good  general. 
Strategy  must  not  be  unknown  to  him. 

Vitally  important  is  the  ability  to  get  the  point 
of  view  of  the  various  interests  involved  in  bad 
housing  conditions.  There  must  be  breadth  of 
view,  fair-mindedness  and  tolerance  of  the  rights 
of  others,  of  the  owners  as  well  as  of  the  tenants, 
if  a  successful  outcome  is  to  be  had  from  such  a 
movement. 

I  have  said  that  the  functions  of  an  improved 
housing  committee  are  two-fold:  to  ascertain  the 
facts,  and  to  educate  the  community.  It  would 
seem  a  truism  to  state  that  the  first  duty  is  the 
ascertainment  of  the  facts,  yet  probably  no  one 
thing  is  harder  to  impress  upon  persons  taking  up 
a  movement  for  housing  reform  than  this.  It  is 
true  that  the  facts  are  known  in  a  general  way,  but 
that  is  not  what  is  meant.  The  facts  must  be 
known  accurately,  carefully  and  scientifically. 
There  are  no  short  cuts. 

There  can  be  no  successful  legislation  based 
upon  impressions.  Reforms  not  based  upon  care- 
fully ascertained  facts  will  be  found  to  have  no 
permanent  value.  You  will  but  enact  a  law  one 
year  to  have  it  repealed  the  next. 

The  breast-works  which  defend  the  law  are 
made  of  the  materials  dug  out  in  the  investigation. 


VI 


VI 

THE   ESSENTIALS  OF  A   HOUSING 
INVESTIGATION 

THE  purpose  of  all  housing  investigations  is 
primarily  to  find  out  exactly  what  the  con- 
ditions are,  so  that  appropriate  action  may 
be  taken  to  bring  about  their  amelioration.  Such 
an  inquiry,  therefore,  must  be  directed  to  practical 
ends.  It  must  concern  itself  not  only  with  present 
conditions,  but  with  past  causes  and  future  ten- 
dencies. It  is  not  to  be  treated  as  a  sociological 
investigation.  If  it  is  so  treated,  it  will  have 
little  permanent  value  in  improving  conditions. 
Nor  is  it  to  be  prosecuted  from  the  point  of  view 
primarily  of  increasing  the  knowledge  of  the 
community  with  regard  to  the  conditions  under 
which  people  live.  That  will  indeed  be  one  of  its 
important  by-products,  but  its  main  end  should 
be  the  formulation  of  measures  by  which  the  ad- 
verse conditions  discovered  may  be  remedied. 

No  part  of  a  housing  investigation  is  of  more 
importance  than  the  formulation  of  the  schedules 
to  be  used  in  the  inquiry,  and  no  part  is  usually 
approached  with  so  little  knowledge  of  the  facts 
to  be  disclosed.  Often  because  of  the  interest 

55 


HOUSING    REFORM 

aroused  in  the  community  and  the  pressure 
brought  by  members  of  the  committee,  there  is 
the  temptation  to  hurry  into  the  field  with  in- 
vestigations, prematurely,  before  a  comprehensive 
plan  has  been  worked  out.  Such  procedure  is  a 
costly  waste  of  effort  and  money.  The  results 
obtained  are  invariably  unsatisfactory,  and  often 
many  phases  of  the  inquiry  have  to  be  done  over. 
A  month  or  more  may  very  well  be  taken  in  the 
preparation  of  housing  schedules,  especially  where 
the  person  making  the  inquiry  comes  to  the  task 
without  special  knowledge  of  such  investigations. 
It  will  repay  the  investigator,  before  adopting  his 
final  schedules,  to  put  them  to  actual  test  in  the 
field  for  some  days,  as  it  will  generally  be  found 
that  many  changes  are  necessary  in  order  to  make 
the  schedules  serve  their  full  purpose. 

The  preparation  of  such  schedules  often  taxes 
all  the  resources  of  an  investigator.  Certain  im- 
portant points  should  be  borne  in  mind.  Expe- 
rience shows  that  schedules  of  this  nature  should 
be  in  card  form,  thus  permitting  the  filing  of 
the  records  with  regard  to  individual  buildings 
in  a  systematic  and  readily  accessible  way.  The 
best  size  card  to  use  is  one  five  inches  wide  by 
eight  inches  long.  This  is  a  standard  size  and  can 
be  obtained  in  stock.  Cards  any  smaller  than 
this  will  be  found  insufficient  to  contain  the  various 
facts  that  it  is  necessary  to  ascertain.  Different 
colors  should  be  used  for  different  purposes. 

In  general,  the  various  points  expected  to  be 
56 


ESSENTIALS    OF    A    HOUSING    INVESTIGATION 

covered  should  be  anticipated  and  printed  upon 
the  card,  leaving  to  the  investigator  merely  the 
task  of  checking  the  various  classes  of  facts  dis- 
covered in  the  inquiry.  This  is  important  for 
two  reasons:  first,  in  order  to  save  the  time  of  the 
investigator;  second,  so  as  to  present  the  same 
classes  of  facts  in  the  same  way  with  regard  to 
each  building,  family  or  block  that  may  be  the 
subject  of  the  inquiry.  If,  instead  of  this,  each 
investigator  is  allowed  to  write  in  what  his  judg- 
ment suggests  with  regard  to  each  class  of  facts, 
it  will  be  found,  when  it  is  sought  to  tabulate  the 
results  of  the  inquiry,  that  they  are  not  susceptible 
of  tabulation,  and  that,  instead  of  having  a  clear, 
concise,  definite  report  of  conditions  found,  there 
will  be  nothing  more  than  a  mere  jumble  of  im- 
pressions, from  which  it  will  be  difficult  to  give  the 
public  a  clear  conception  of  the  actual  conditions. 
The  records  should  be  made  in  ink.  Investi- 
gators should  not  be  permitted  to  use  note  books 
and  to  copy  the  facts  from  their  note  books  on 
the  cards  at  home  or  in  the  office.  Such  a  method 
is  not  only  an  unnecessary  duplication  of  work 
but  fatal  to  accuracy.  The  cards  are  for  actual 
field  use  and  should  be  so  designed  as  to  facilitate 
such  use.  Quite  frequently  persons  making  hous- 
ing schedules  arrange  the  facts  that  are  to  be 
noted  on  the  cards  in  such  order  as  they  happen 
to  occur  to  them.  The  result  is  that  often  an 
investigator,  if  he  follows  his  card  schedules  (as 
he  must)  is  called  upon  to  record  certain  facts 

57 


HOUSING    REFORM 

with  regard  to  the  cellar  of  a  house,  is  then  called 
upon  to  record  facts  with  regard  to  the  roof,  then 
suddenly  plunged  to  the  cellar  again,  then  to 
some  of  the  apartments,  perhaps  on  the  third  floor, 
then  to  the  out-premises,  and  so  jumped  from  one 
portion  of  the  building  to  another,  involving  an 
unnecessary  waste  of  time  and  effort. 

The  properly  prepared  schedule*  arranges  the 
classes  of  facts  to  be  noted,  in  the  same  order  on 
the  card  as  will  be  actually  followed  by  the  inves- 
tigator in  his  progress  through  the  building,  begin- 
ning either  at  the  cellar  and  ascending  through  the 
building  to  the  roof,  or  beginning  at  the  roof  and 
descending  to  the  cellar  and  out-premises. 

Where  there  are  many  apartments  or  families 
in  a  building  and  it  is  desired  to  learn  many  facts 
with  regard  to  each  apartment  or  family,  it  will 
be  found  essential  to  prepare  separate  schedules 
for  each  apartment  or  family,  separating  the  facts 
thus  ascertained  from  the  general  points  of  in- 
formation with  regard  to  the  building  itself. 

In  preparing  card  schedules  it  is  important  that 
the  method  of  printing  should  embody,  so  far  as 
practicable,  a  scheme  of  classification  of  the  more 
important  classes  of  facts  to  be  ascertained. 
Thus,  one  style  and  size  of  type  should  be  used  to 
indicate  certain  classes  of  facts,  like  cleanliness 
and  repair;  and  a  subordinate  size  and  style  of 
type  to  indicate  sub-topics  under  each  one  of  these 
classes. 

*See  sample  schedules,  pages  199-203. 
58 


ESSENTIALS   OF   A   HOUSING    INVESTIGATION 

How  to  do  away  with  the  conflicting  judgment 
of  different  individuals  is  one  of  the  problems 
that  is  most  perplexing.  How  is  one  to  tell  the 
number  of  dark  rooms,  for  example,  where  there 
are  such  conflicting  opinions  in  the  minds  of  the 
investigators  as  to  what  a  dark  room  is?  What 
constitutes  a  dark  room,  and  a  very  dark  room? 
Even  more  confusing  are  reports  rendered  with 
regard  to  conditions  of  cleanliness  and  uncleanli- 
ness.  What  is  a  dirty  hall?  What  one  person 
calls  a  dirty  hall  another  may  call  a  clean  one. 
Similarly  with  regard  to  repair:  To  be  told  that  a 
house  is  in  good  repair  or  in  poor  repair  means 
little.  What  seems  poor  repair  to  one  man  seems 
very  bad  repair  to  another. 

As  a  means  of  counteracting  this  difficulty  so  far 
as  may  be  practicable,  a  plan  has  been  devised  by 
which  it  is  sought  to  have  the  investigator  report 
the  conditions  found  not  only  by  an  adjective  but 
also  to  indicate  on  a  percentage  basis  his  opinion  as 
to  the  state  of  affairs  disclosed:  Thus,  in  reporting 
as  to  cleanliness  it  is  suggested  that  the  following 
scheme  be  adopted:  That  the  investigators  be 
allowed  to  answer  only  in  the  following  terms: 
"Very  Clean,"  "Clean,"  "Dirty,"  "Somewhat 
Dirty,"  "Filthy,"  and  in  addition  be  required  to 
indicate  these  facts  on  a  percentage  basis,  thus— 
"Very  Clean"  shall  be  deemed  100;  "Clean,"  80; 
"Somewhat  Dirty,"  60;  "Dirty,"  40;  "Filthy," 
"o."  Similarly  with  regard  to  repair:  The 
investigator  should  be  permitted  to  answer  in 

59 


HOUSING    REFORM 

only  three  terms  as  to  the  condition  of  repair;  viz., 
"  Good,"  "  Fair, "  "  Bad,"  and  these  should  be  nu- 
merically expressed  by  100,  50,  o.  The  obser- 
vance of  these  principles  will  be  found  to  be  of 
great  help. 

Another  point  upon  which  emphasis  should  be 
placed  is  the  importance  of  providing  in  the  be- 
ginning of  such  inquiries  for  sufficient  time  and 
for  the  expenditure  of  sufficient  funds  for  the 
tabulation  of  the  reports  after  the  field  work  is 
completed.  Often  too  little  provision  is  made 
for  this  phase  of  the  work.  It  will  be  found  that 
it  takes  quite  as  much  time  as  does  the  actual 
ascertainment  of  the  facts  in  the  field. 

As  the  investigation  proceeds,  arrangements 
should  be  made  for  securing  photographs  of  typ- 
ical conditions  for  use  in  illustrating  the  report, 
as  they  will  greatly  enhance  its  value  and  effec- 
tiveness. 

No  portion  of  a  housing  investigation  presents 
more  difficulties  than  the  formulation  of  the  re- 
port. The  most  important  and  vital  facts  may 
have  been  discovered  and  yet,  unless  they  are 
properly  presented,  little  value  is  likely  to  flow 
from  the  investigation.  The  facts  discovered 
must  be  presented  to  the  community  in  such  a 
way  as  to  hold  people's  attention;  to  impress 
upon  them  in  a  manner  never  to  be  forgotten  the 
conditions  under  which  many  are  living  and  the 
menace  of  these  conditions  to  the  community  as 
a  whole. 

60 


VII 

MODEL  TENEMENTS  AND  THEIR 
LIMITATIONS 


VII 

MODEL  TENEMENTS  AND  THEIR 
LIMITATIONS 

IN  the  popular  mind  the  solution  of  the  hous- 
ing problem  lies  in  the  building  of  "model 
tenements."  Probably  the  first  suggestion 
that  is  made  when  a  group  of  people  take  up  the 
housing  problem  for  the  first  time  is  to  build  a 
model  tenement.  It  is  strange  that  intelligent 
people  should  believe  that  the  building  of  one 
house  of  this  kind  in  any  city  can  have  any  very 
appreciable  effect  in  solving  the  housing  problem. 
I  doubt  whether  such  belief  is  ever  consciously 
held.  What  happens  is  that  people  see  bad 
housing  conditions  and  say  to  themselves:  "The 
poor  should  have  decent  houses  to  live  in.  They 
have  built  model  tenements  in  other  places.  In 
some  cities  they  have  been  very  successful.  Sup- 
pose we  build  one."  Underlying  this  is  the  desire 
to  get  quick  results,  to  see  quickly  realized  the 
tangible  product  of  one's  efforts. 

Such  a  point  of  view  indicates  lack  of  imagina- 
tion, a  failure  to  appreciate  the  extent  and  influ- 
ence of  the  bad  conditions  that  exist  and  the 
limitations  of  the  influence  of  one  model  tenement. 

63 


HOUSING    REFORM 

Perhaps  back  of  all,  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
really  do  think  this  far,  is  the  belief  that  it  is 
necessary  to  demonstrate:  first,  that  the  poor 
really  want  improved  housing  conditions;  second, 
that  model  tenements  will  pay  in  that  particular 
city  and,  third,  that  when  they  have  demonstrated 
these  two  things  the  influence  of  their  effort  will 
be  so  great  that  it  will  lead  other  persons  to  build 
similar  houses  and  thus  gradually  provide  more 
accommodations  of  this  nature  for  the  working 
people. 

It  would  hardly  seem  necessary  to  comment  on 
the  state  of  the  philanthropic  education  of  a 
community  that  needs  to  have  demonstrated  to 
it  in  so  expensive  a  way  the  fact  that  the  poor 
desire  improved  and  decent  dwellings.  It  is  a 
singularly  provincial  view  which  thinks  it  neces- 
sary to  show  that  model  tenements  will  pay  in 
a  particular  locality,  in  view  of  their  success  for 
over  fifty  years  in  many  of  the  large  cities  of  the 
world. 

Finally,  the  belief  that  the  ordinary  com- 
mercial builder  will  be  led  to  build  improved 
tenements  because  of  the  object  lesson  afforded 
by  the  particular  model  tenement  in  question,  is 
chimerical.  The  commercial  builder  is  not  in- 
fluenced by  such  considerations.  His  sole  inter- 
est in  building  houses  is  to  make  money.  He  is 
going  to  build  those  houses  that  will  net  him  the 
largest  return,  unless  he  is  prevented  by  legis- 
lation. Nor  will  he  voluntarily  give  up  any 

64 


MODEL  TENEMENTS   AND   THEIR   LIMITATIONS 

share  of  his  profits  in  order  that  the  future  tenants 
of  the  building  may  have  more  conveniences. 
This  is  not  a  theoretical  view.  There  is  no  city  in 
America  where  model  tenements  have  been  built 
in  which  they  have  materially  influenced  the 
ordinary  commercial  builder. 

That  persons  really  seeking  to  improve  housing 
conditions  should  be  willing  to  limit  their  efforts 
to  the  construction  and  management  of  a  model 
tenement  and  be  satisfied  with  the  narrow  results 
that  flow  from  such  an  effort  is  disappointing. 
They  do  not  seem  to  ask  themselves:  "  How  many 
people  will  this  effort  of  ours  reach?  While  we 
are  building  this  one  model  tenement,  which  may 
at  the  best  house  50  families  or  250  people,  how 
many  unsanitary  tenements  will  be  constructed 
by  speculative  builders  and  how  many  thousands 
of  people  will  be  compelled  to  live  in  them?" 

Nor  do  they  ask,  "  How  many  families  are  still 
being  compelled  to  live  in  the  old,  dilapidated,  un- 
sanitary houses  in  which  they  now  live?"  There 
seems  to  be  no  appreciation  of  the  relation  of  their 
efforts  to  the  community  as  a  whole;  no  concep- 
tion on  their  part  of  the  number  of  people  for 
whom  proper  housing  accommodations  must  be 
provided  and  their  total  inability  to  meet  these 
needs  through  the  building  of  one  or  even  several 
model  tenements.  The  question  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  such  houses  is  also  ordinarily  lost  sight 
of.  People  fail  to  realize  that  the  building  of  one 
model  tenement  in  the  east  end  of  the  town  is  of 
5  65 


HOUSING    REFORM 

very  little  advantage  in  improving  the  housing 
conditions  of  the  people  in  the  west  end  or  in  the 
south  end  or  in  some  other  quarter. 

The  building  of  model  tenements  is  in  no  com- 
munity a  solution  of  the  housing  problem.  If 
there  are  large  numbers  of  people  living  in  tene- 
ments insufficiently  ventilated,  in  rooms  partly 
underground,  the  building  of  a  model  tenement, 
even  in  that  neighborhood,  will  remedy  these 
conditions  only  for  the  few  who  live  in  it,  and  as 
long  as  conditions  remain  unchanged,  people  will 
continue  to  suffer  under  them.  The  situation  of 
the  thousands  of  people  who  must  still  live  in 
houses  that  are  dilapidated  and  out  of  repair^*. - 
is  in  no  way  improved  by  the  building  of  a  model 
tenement  in  their  city.  If  many  families  must 
still  live  in  rooms  the  majority  of  which  are  dark, 
the  building  of  a  model  tenement  does  not  help 
them.  If  thousands  of  people  are  compelled  to 
live  without  adequate  water  supply  and  with 
unsanitary  plumbing,  the  building  of  a  model 
tenement  in  no  way  improves  their  condition. 

The  only  way  to  improve  the  bad  housing  condi- 
tions that  exist — defective  plumbing,  dark  rooms, 
unsanitary  premises  and  all  the  other  evils — is  to 
improve  those  conditions;  namely,  to  prohibit 
cellar  dwellings  and  to  compel  the  owners  by  legal 
enactment  to  let  light  into  the  rooms,  to  clean  up 
the  premises  and  keep  them  clean,  to  provide 
water  supply,  &c. 

Moreover,  good  intentions  do  not  make  a  model 
66 


MODEL   TENEMENTS    AND   THEIR    LIMITATIONS 

tenement.  To  build  a  successful  one  requires  a 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  poor 
live;  familiarity  with  the  best  and  wisest  methods 
of  planning;  an  appreciation  of  the  peculiar  local 
conditions  which  exist  in  each  neighborhood  and 
the  selection  of  the  appropriate  locality  for  the 
building.  Even  when  all  these  requirements  are 
observed,  the  whole  enterprise  may  be  wrecked 
because  of  the  inability  of  the  persons  interested 
in  it  to  properly  manage  it.  The  management  of 
a  tenement  house  is  not  an  easy  task,  especially 
where  the  building  contains  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  people  of  foreign  nationalities.  Too  often 
the  persons  interested  in  such  enterprises  are  un- 
familiar with  the  actual  conditions  under  which 
the  poorer  people  live,  and  are  apt  either  to  be 
extravagant  in  the  construction  of  the  building, 
to  go  to  unnecessary  expense,  to  waste  space  in 
unwise  planning,  or  to  so  manage  the  house  after 
it  is  erected  that  it  becomes  a  failure. 

The  history  of  the  first  model  tenement  in  New 
York  is  strikingly  interesting.  It  was  built  in 
1855  by  a  group  of  public-spirited  citizens  who 
desired  to  improve  living  conditions.  It  was 
known  as  the  "Workmen's  Home."  One  of  the 
most  interesting  things  connected  with  it  was  the 
statement  made  in  the  prospectus,  that  "  Every 
room  is  well  ventilated,  having  air  flues  from  each 
to  the  roof."  When  it  is  known  that  there  were 
on  each  floor  twenty-eight  entirely  dark  bedrooms, 
with  only  such  ventilation  as  might  be  obtained 

67 


HOUSING    REFORM 

from  the  public  hallways  or  from  a  flue  about  the 
thickness  of  one  brick  in  one  of  the  walls,  this 
statement  seems  rather  astonishing  to  our  present- 
day  notions  of  what  constitutes  adequate  light  and 
ventilation.  A  few  years  after  the  building  was 
erected  it  degenerated  into  one  of  the  worst  houses 
in  the  city  and  became  the  resort  of  thieves, 
prostitutes  and  the  criminal  classes  generally. 

Another  house  built  somewhat  more  recently 
has  never  been  able  to  pay  more  than  three  per 
cent  on  the  investment,  sometimes  not  that, 
because  an  undue  amount  of  land  was  left  vacant 
and  the  building  was  unwisely  planned.  A  third 
experiment  of  this  nature  recently  terminated  after 
considerable  financial  loss.  After  a  life  of  seven- 
teen years,  the  property  was  abandoned  by  its 
philanthropic  owners  and  sold  to  some  real  estate 
speculators,  who  shortly  after  altered  the  building, 
with  the  announcement  that  they  found  it  neces- 
sary to  do  so  to  make  it  a  paying  proposition  and 
to  bring  it  up  to  the  standards  demanded  by  the 
tenants. 

The  failure  of  these  enterprises  does  not  indicate 
that  model  tenements  can  not  be  built  that  will 
succeed,  but  does  point  to  the  fact  that  there  are 
difficulties  to  be  encountered  which  the  average 
philanthropic  person  without  experience  does  not 
think  of  when  it  is  proposed  to  start  an  enterprise 
of  this  kind. 

The  various  model  tenement  enterprises  in  this 
country  have  manifested  themselves  in  two  forms. 

68 


MODEL   TENEMENTS   AND   THEIR    LIMITATIONS 

First,  the  building  of  improved  houses  with  the 
expressed  intention  of  furnishing  comfortable  and 
pleasant  living  accommodations  to  the  poorer 
members  of  the  community  at  rents  lower  than  the 
prevailing  rentals.  Such  enterprises  must  be  re- 
garded strictly  as  charity.  They  are  very  undesir- 
able and  exert  a  pauperizing  influence  as  do  other 
forms  of  outdoor  relief.  They  also  invariably  in- 
jure the  cause  of  housing  reform. 

The  other  form  of  effort,  frequently  designated 
by  the  title  "  Philanthropy  and  Five  Per  cent,"  is 
found  in  the  work  of  those  persons  who,  recognizing 
the  unfortunate  effect  of  such  charity,  build  model 
tenements  with  the  determination  that  their  work 
shall  be  conducted  as  a  business  enterprise;  that 
unless  they  can  get  a  fair  return  upon  the  money  in- 
vested it  shall  not  be  carried  on;  and  that  the  ac- 
commodations furnished  shall  not  be  at  rates  lower 
than  the  prevailing  rents  in  the  neighborhood. 
Such  enterprises  have  in  most  cities  been  success- 
ful. They  have  paid  a  fair  return  on  the  invest- 
ment, generally  about  five  per  cent;  in  a  few  cases 
more,  in  a  number  of  cases  less.  The  most  success- 
ful of  them  are  the  very  excellent  buildings  of  Mr. 
Alfred  T.  White  in  Brooklyn,  the  first  of  which  was 
erected  in  1877,  and  those  of  the  City  and  Subur- 
ban Homes  Company  of  New  York  City,  which 
date  from  1896.  In  Boston  there  are  also  several 
companies  which  have  been  uniformly  successful 
in  this  field  of  effort. 

The  great  objection  to  the  building  of  model 
69 


HOUSING    REFORM 

tenements  as  a  solution  of  the  housing  problem 
is  that  it  means,  as  a  rule,  the  complete  diversion 
of  the  interest,  energy  and  financial  support  of 
benevolent  people  who  genuinely  desire  to  improve 
the  condition  of  the  poor  away  from  lines  of  effort 
that  are  fundamentally  corrective  towards  those 
that  are  merely  palliative.  Until  adequate  restric- 
tive legislation  has  been  passed  and  the  certainty 
of  its  enforcement  secured,  there  should  be  no 
talk  of  any  other  form  of  effort  in  housing  reform. 

Those  who  contemplate  building  model  tene- 
ments before  this  has  been  accomplished,  should 
clearly  recognize  that  they  are  not  making  any 
substantial  contribution  to  the  solution  of  the 
housing  problem;  that  they  are  benefiting  the 
few  to  the  exclusion  of  the  many;  that  they  are, 
at  best,  cultivating  one  small  corner,  while  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  field  remains  untilled. 

The  same  amount  of  energy  and  effort  that  is 
put  ordinarily  into  the  formation  of  a  model 
tenement  company  and  the  building  and  manage- 
ment of  one  or  two  groups  of  model  tenements, 
applied  with  proper  intelligence  to  a  movement 
for  legislation  preventing  the  construction  of  bad 
types  of  dwellings,  insuring  the  construction  of 
good  ones,  and  securing  the  proper  maintenance 
of  all  dwellings,  will  yield  a  thousandfold  greater 
results. 

The  community  must  see  to  it  that  houses 
are  not  built  in  the  future  that  are  unfit  for  its 
citizens  to  live  in — in  a  word,  that  structurally 

70 


MODEL   TENEMENTS    AND   THEIR    LIMITATIONS 

every  tenement  house  in  the  future  shall  be  a 
model  tenement.  The  community  must  also  see 
to  it  that  the  homes  of  the  poorer  classes  are 
maintained  in  a  decent  and  sanitary  condition. 
It  takes  more  effort  in  the  beginning;  it  requires 
more  skill,  more  patience,  more  imagination;  one 
must  be  willing  to  wait  a  few  years  to  see  the 
fruition  of  one's  efforts.  But  when  once  realized 
they  are  realized  practically  for  all  time. 

The  relative  extent  of  the  influences  resulting 
from  the  building  of  a  model  tenement  and  the 
influences  resulting  from  the  enactment  of  proper 
housing  laws  is  seen  in  the  actual  experience  of 
different  American  cities.  The  experience  of  New 
York,  where  the  greatest  effort  for  housing  reform 
has  been  made  and  for  a  longer  period  of  time  than 
in  any  other  place,  affords  a  striking  illustration. 
The  movement  for  housing  reform  in  that  city 
was  begun  over  sixty  years  ago.  During  that  time 
various  similar  movements  have  been  organized  at 
intervals  of  about  ten  years.  The  first  organized 
movement  was  forty  years  ago. 

During  these  forty  years,  through  the  efforts  of 
philanthropically  inclined  persons,  there  have  been 
built  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan  25  groups  of 
model  tenements  equivalent  to  89  separate  houses, 
providing  accommodations  for  3588  families  or 
17,940  persons.  In  the  same  period  of  time  the 
speculative  builder  has  built  approximately  27,100 
tenement  houses,  most  of  them  of  a  very  objec- 
tionable type,  unsanitary  buildings,  with  many 

7' 


HOUSING    REFORM 

dark  rooms,  narrow  air-shafts,  improper  ventila- 
tion, inadequate  plumbing  and  absence  of  proper 
sanitary  conveniences,  insufficient  privacy  and 
great  danger  in  case  of  fire.  In  these  buildings 
are  housed  approximately  253,510  families  or  over 
one  million  and  a  quarter  of  people  (1,267,550). 
That  is,  while  philanthropic  people  in  this  period 
have  been  building  model  tenements  for  17,000 
people,  the  ordinary  builder,  unrestrained  by  ade- 
quate restrictive  legislation,  has  provided  unsan- 
itary homes  for  1,267,550  people. 

In  other  words,  for  every  13  people  who  have 
been  provided  with  model  tenements,  1000  others 
have  been  condemned  to  live  in  unsanitary  ones. 

Had  the  same  effort  which  went  to  the  building 
and  management  of  these  model  tenements  been 
expended  in  securing  the  enactment  and  enforce- 
ment of  proper  housing  laws,  most  of  the  housing 
evils  in  New  York  City  would  not  exist  to-day. 
That  this  is  not  a  theoretical  view  is  fully  proven 
by  the  operation  of  the  present  tenement  house 
law.  This  law,  enacted  in  1901,  was  the  first 
adequate  legislation  to  control  and  regulate  the 
future  type  of  tenement  house  in  this  city  and 
ensure  the  building  of  houses  with  sufficient  light 
and  ventilation,  proper  sanitation,  privacy  and 
reasonable  protection  against  fire.  Every  house 
built  under  its  operation  is,  in  these  essential 
particulars,  equal  to  the  best  model  tenements 
constructed  in  New  York  in  recent  years. 

During  the  period  of  seven  years  in  which  this 
72 


MODEL   TENEMENTS    AND   THEIR    LIMITATIONS 

law  has  been  in  operation  philanthropic  persons 
interested  in  the  building  of  model  tenements  have 
built  13  groups  of  buildings,  equivalent  to  about 
37  separate  houses,  providing  living  accommoda- 
tions for  1871  families  or  9,355  persons.  During 
the  same  period  the  ordinary  commercial  specu- 
lative builder,  building  for  his  own  profit  and  with- 
out any  thought  of  the  welfare  of  his  tenants,  has 
built  21,761  houses  providing  accommodations 
for  253,255  families  or  over  one  million  and  a 
quarter  persons  (1,266,275),  equal  in  the  essential 
respects  above  noted  to  these  model  tenements. 

To  put  it  in  another  way,  philanthropy  in  this 
period  has  provided  but  seven-tenths  of  one  per 
cent  of  the  improved  living  conditions  while  99^$- 
per  cent  has  been  provided  by  the  speculative 
builder  restrained  and  controlled  by  wise  legisla- 
tion. 

And  this  has  all  been  brought  about  by  the 
enactment  of  a  law  which  compels  the  building  of 
proper  houses  and  forbids  the  erection  of  others. 

Houses  once  built  stay  a  long  time.  It  will  be 
generations  before  bad  types  of  houses  are  de- 
stroyed, and  when  structurally  wrong,  it  is  diffi- 
cult, almost  impossible,  to  adequately  improve 
them. 


73 


VIII 

MUNICIPAL  TENEMENTS  AND  MUNICIPAL 
REGULATION 


VIII 

MUNICIPAL  TENEMENTS  AND  MUNICIPAL 
REGULATION 

WITH  the  increasing  trend  in  this  country 
in  recent  years  toward  municipal  opera- 
tion of  public  utilities  and  the  extension 
of  municipal  functions  generally,  there  has  been  a 
growing  demand  for  the  construction  and  manage- 
ment of  tenement  houses  by  the  municipality. 

It  is  no  part  of  the  function  of  this  book  to  enter 
upon  a  discussion  of  state  socialism  or  the  relative 
advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  municipal 
operation  of  public  utilities.  The  question  we 
have  to  consider  is  whether  the  housing  problem 
in  any  given  city  will  be  best  solved  by  having 
the  municipality  undertake  the  building  and  man- 
agement of  tenement  houses. 

This  is  a  question  which  must  be  settled  by 
each  city  with  reference  to  its  experience  in  the 
conduct  of  its  municipal  affairs.  The  experience 
of  other  American  cities  in  this  direction  must  also 
be  taken  advantage  of. 

Now  what  are  the  conclusions  which  lead  to  the 
belief  that  the  solution  of  the  housing  problem  is 
to  be  found  along  such  lines?  The  argument 

77 


HOUSING   REFORM 

most  commonly  advanced  by  the  advocates  of 
municipal  tenements  is  that  such  enterprises  have 
been  carried  on,  on  a  very  large  scale,  in  other 
countries,  especially  in  Germany  and  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  have  been  very  successful. 

That  municipal  tenements  have  succeeded  in 
Europe,  is  hardly  a  reason  for  urging  such  an 
experiment  in  America.  Political  conditions  here 
are  totally  different.  Here  there  is  not  the  same 
tenure  of  office  in  municipal  administration. 
Permanency  of  administration  is  essential  to  suc- 
cess in  such  enterprises.  The  shifting  of  respon- 
sible officers  every  two  or  four  years  in  itself 
precludes  the  possibility  of  success. 

Moreover,  no  European  city — certainly  not  the 
great  cities  of  England,  Scotland  and  Germany 
where  such  enterprises  have  had  their  greatest  suc- 
cess— has  had  to  deal  with  anything  but  a  homoge- 
neous population.  No  such  city  has  been  called 
upon  as  American  cities  are  called  upon  to  as- 
similate a  constantly  increasing  crowd  of  immi- 
grants, representing  nearly  every  nationality  in 
the  world.  Nor  have  such  cities  had  to  face  the 
problem  of  adjusting  their  municipal  government 
to  widely  varying  standards  and  methods  of  living, 
hampered  by  the  inability  of  the  varied  population 
to  speak  and  understand  a  common  language. 

The  advocates  of  municipal  tenements,  recog- 
nizing that  many  of  the  housing  evils  of  to-day  are 
due  to  the  failure  of  individual  landlords  to  realize 
their  responsibilities,  undoubtedly  believe  that  if 

78 


MUNICIPAL   TENEMENTS    AND    REGULATION 

once  the  city  becomes  a  landlord  it  will  have  a 
higher  sense  of  responsibility,  and  that  the  public 
will  hold  it  to  a  higher  standard  of  administration. 
It  is  also  probably  their  view,  even  though  not 
often  consciously  expressed,  that  the  city  will  not 
enter  upon  such  an  enterprise  with  the  idea  of 
making  money  from  it,  and  that,  therefore,  the 
money  that  now  goes  to  the  profit  of  landlords  and 
builders  could  be  devoted  either  to  the  reduction 
of  rents  or  to  the  building  of  better  houses  and 
the  provision  of  more  comforts  and  conveniences 
than  are  now  enjoyed  by  the  ordinary  tenement- 
house  dweller. 

Taking  up  the  first  of  these  arguments,  that  a 
higher  standard  of  administration  in  the  manage- 
ment of  tenement  houses  may  be  expected  from 
the  city  government  than  is  now  had  from  numer- 
ous individual  owners,  let  us  consider  what  basis 
in  fact  there  is  in  the  experience  of  any  city  in 
America  to  warrant  such  a  belief.  In  the  first 
place,  who  are  the  people  who  actually  will  manage 
the  municipal  tenements?  In  every  American 
city,  if  this  experiment  were  undertaken,  the 
management  would  necessarily  be  left  to  one  of 
two  classes  of  persons:  either  politicians,  ap- 
pointed to  office  for  political  reasons,  or  persons 
appointed  to  office  as  a  result  of  competitive  civil 
service  examination. 

Is  there  any  doubt  as  to  the  kind  of  tenement 
house  management  that  would  result  from  placing 
the  control  of  numerous  tenements  in  the  hands 

79 


HOUSING    REFORM 

of  the  ordinary  politician?  Hardly  more  than 
mere  allusion  need  be  made  to  the  obvious  oppor- 
tunities for  political  patronage  afforded  by  the 
municipal  operation  of  tenement  houses.  How 
difficult  it  would  be  to  withstand  the  appeals  of 
the  district  leader  that  families  about  to  be  dis- 
possessed for  failure  to  pay  their  rent  promptly 
should  be  permitted  to  remain  in  the  city's 
tenements  until  such  time  as  they  could  hope  to 
meet  their  obligations;  and  how  that  time  would 
lengthen  from  month  to  month!  How  important 
would  be  the  power  before  election  time  of  assign- 
ing the  municipal  dwellers  to  various  districts, 
and  what  tempting  opportunities  this  would  offer 
for  the  colonizing  of  voters !  City  life  is  sufficiently 
complex  now  and  the  municipal  problem  suf- 
ficiently difficult,  without  further  encumbering  it 
with  the  numerous  complications  which  would 
result  from  municipal  tenements. 

On  the  other  hand,  what  sort  of  administration 
of  such  enterprises  could  be  expected  from  the 
kind  of  person  that  would  be  appointed  as  a  result 
of  a  civil  service  examination?  Anyone  who  has 
administered  public  office  in  any  of  our  large 
cities  and  been  compelled  to  appoint  his  sub- 
ordinates by  this  method  knows  how  difficult  it  is, 
as  a  rule,  to  secure  in  this  way,  men  of  the  requisite 
experience  and  capacity  for  administrative  posi- 
tions. 

In  addition  to  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered 
in  securing  the  right  kind  of  officers  to  administer 

80 


MUNICIPAL    TENEMENTS    AND    REGULATION 

such  enterprises,  are  the  very  serious  difficulties 
with  which  public  officers  must  contend,  in  the 
nature  of  restrictive  legislation,  which  hampers 
the  free  management  of  public  affairs — provisions 
of  city  charters  and  various  enactments  of  legis- 
latures framed  with  an  intent  to  prevent  corrup- 
tion, and  all  of  which  would  especially  hamper  and 
obstruct  such  an  official  in  the  performance  of  his 
duties.  For  instance,  in  several  cities  no  contract 
amounting  to  $1,000  or  more  can  be  let  without 
public  bidding  and  without  advertisement  for  a 
period  of  several  weeks,  and  then  the  official 
in  question  is  compelled  by  law  to  award  such 
contract  to  the  lowest  bidder. 

If  cities  are  to  embark  upon  municipal  operation 
of  tenement  houses,  most  of  our  present  laws  with 
regard  to  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  will  have 
to  be  wiped  off  the  statute  books.  The  civil  ser- 
vice laws  in  many  cases  will  also  prove  a  serious 
bar  to  proper  and  efficient  administration.  The 
inability  of  a  public  officer  to  readily  and  promptly 
discharge  an  incompetent  employe  would  seriously 
complicate  matters.  What  a  delicious  situation 
it  would  be  where  the  janitor  or  housekeeper  of 
a  tenement  house  could  not  be  discharged  for 
incompetence  except  after  a  trial,  with  the  pro- 
ceedings subject  to  review  by  the  courts  upon 
ceriiorari! 

If  the  city  is  to  enter  the  field  of  building  opera- 
tions and  compete  with  private  capital  and  is  to 
build  its  houses  without  thought  of  profit,  private 
6  81 


HOUSING   REFORM 

enterprise  will  in  a  short  time  be  driven  out  of  the 
field.  It  can  not  compete  with  municipal  under- 
taking. The  result  will  be  that  in  a  short  time 
the  municipality  will  find  that  it  must  occupy 
the  entire  field.  The  only  houses  that  will  then 
be  built  for  the  accommodation  of  the  poor  will 
be  built  by  the  city.  Private  builders  will  have 
ceased  to  operate.  What  this  means  can  best  be 
appreciated  when  it  is  understood  that  in  the  City 
of  New  York  for  example,  one  hundred  and  twelve 
million  dollars'  worth  of  tenement  houses  were 
built  during  the  year  1906.  That  the  city  should 
embark  upon  so  vast  an  enterprise  as  the  provi- 
sion of  dwellings  for  the  majority  of  its  citizens 
is  not  to  be  contemplated. 

This  question,  however,  is  not  to  be  determined 
upon  any  theoretical  basis.  The  question  which 
each  community  must  face  is:  What  is  there 
in  the  experience  of  that  particular  city  in  its 
municipal  administration  that  would  indicate  that 
those  entrusted  with  the  administration  of  the 
city's  affairs  are  likely  to  build  and  manage  tene- 
ment houses  in  a  better  way  than  they  are  now 
built  and  managed  by  individual  owners? 

This  is  a  matter  which  it  should  not  be  difficult 
to  decide  at  any  time.  The  citizens  of  any  com- 
munity have  before  them  at  all  times  a  constant 
object  lesson  as  to  the  efficiency  of  their  municipal 
officers  and  the  desirability  of  entrusting  to  them 
new  and  enlarged  functions.  Shall  we  bond 
ourselves,  the  citizens  may  ask,  or  increase  our 

82 


MUNICIPAL   TENEMENTS   AND    REGULATION 

tax  rate,  to  enter  upon  the  experiment  of  munic- 
ipal ownership  and  operation  of  tenement  houses, 
and  by  this  means  secure  better  homes  for  the 
masses  of  our  working  people?  Are  we  likely,  not 
merely  with  our  present  administration  but  with 
the  kind  of  administration  that  we  have  generally 
had  in  past  years  in  this  town,  to  have  such  tene- 
ment houses  properly  managed? 

The  decision  must  necessarily  rest  upon  the 
answer  that  can  be  made  to  the  questions:  How 
are  our  city  officers  performing  the  functions  with 
which  they  are  now  charged?  Are  our  streets 
being  properly  cleaned?  Is  our  police  force  being 
wisely  administered?  Do  gambling  houses  and 
evil  resorts  exist?  Do  public  officers  sell  privileges 
to  practice  iniquity?  Do  corruption  and  crime 
flourish?  Are  our  public  charities  administered  as 
well  as  they  would  be  administered  through  pri- 
vate societies?  Is  our  public  school  system  what 
it  should  be?  Is  our  Water  Department  a  source 
of  revenue  to  the  city?  Are  the  city's  affairs  in 
general  adequately  administered?  Upon  the  an- 
swers to  such  questions  must  the  decision  rest. 
It  would  seem  that  we  can  wisely  postpone  so 
important  an  experiment  until  we  have  achieved 
better  municipal  administration  of  those  functions 
of  government  which  now  engage  the  attention  of 
the  authorities. 

There  is  no  arbitrary  principle  which  can  be  laid 
down  deciding  that  one  thing  is  a  municipal 
function  and  another  is  not.  The  determination 

83 


HOUSING   REFORM 

of  what  shall  be  done  by  the  city  and  what  shall 
be  done  by  individuals  must  rest  primarily  upon 
the  consideration  of  which  can  do  it  most  advan- 
tageously for  the  community.  If  it  is  clear  that 
the  city  can  best  perform  any  particular  function 
with  the  kind  of  administration  a  community  is 
likely  to  have  most  of  the  time, — not  the  kind  it 
may  happen  to  have  at  some  particular  and  ex- 
ceptional period,  but  the  kind  that  its  own  expe- 
rience through  a  number  of  years  indicates  is 
generally  likely  to  prevail, — it  is  clear  that  the 
city  should  be  entrusted  with  that  function.  If, 
however,  experience  indicates  the  opposite,  it  is 
far  better  to  continue  to  leave  to  private  indi- 
viduals the  performance  of  these  responsibilities. 
Moreover,  what  is  to  be  gained  by  having  the 
government  thus  extend  its  functions?  Do  the 
advocates  of  such  a  plan  expect  to  demonstrate 
that  houses  which  are  sanitary  can  be  built  and 
pay  a  fair  return  on  the  money  invested?  This  has 
been  demonstrated  over  and  over  again  in  the 
past  fifty  years.  Do  they  expect  that  by  this 
method  they  will  be  sure  that  all  tenement  houses 
which  are  erected  in  the  future  will  be  sanitary  and 
provide  proper  accommodations  for  the  persons 
who  are  to  live  in  them?  This  result  has  already 
been  obtained  by  tenement  house  laws,  under 
which  no  houses  can  be  constructed  which  do  not 
provide  such  accommodations.  If  the  laws  did 
not  accomplish  this  result,  the  remedy  would  be 
to  amend  the  laws. 

84 


MUNICIPAL   TENEMENTS   AND    REGULATION 

The  determination  of  this  whole  question  is  to 
be  found  in  a  middle  course  between  the  two 
extremes  urged.  Housing  evils  can  not  be 
remedied  if  private  individuals  are  permitted, 
without  restraint,  to  neglect  the  rights,  comforts 
and  welfare  of  their  tenants.  On  the  other  hand, 
housing  evils  in  America  are  not  to  be  remedied  by 
having  government  embark  upon  the  experiment 
of  the  municipal  ownership  and  operation  of 
tenement  houses.  The  solution  of  the  question  is 
to  be  found  in  the  regulation  of  such  enterprises 
by  the  state  or  municipality,  as  the  case  may  be. 

It  is  eminently  the  right  of  the  state  and  of 
each  community  to  see  to  it  that  people  are  not 
permitted  to  live  under  conditions  which  make  for 
poverty,  sickness,  disease  and  death;  which  pro- 
duce pauper,  criminal  and  vicious  citizens,  whom 
the  state  is  subsequently  called  upon  to  support 
and  reform. 

The  state  has  not  only  a  right  but  a  duty  to 
perform  and  must  say  to  private  individuals: 
"Thus  far  you  may  go,  but  no  farther.  You  shall 
not  be  permitted  to  build  a  house  in  which  people 
ought  not  to  live;  you  shall  not  be  permitted  to 
so  mis-manage  your  house  that  it  is  unhealthful 
or  dangerous  for  people  to  live  in  it."  It  is  along 
the  lines  of  such  regulation  that  the  solution  of  the 
housing  problem  is  to  be  found  in  every  American 
community. 

It  is  by  the  exercise  of  the  police  power  of  the 
state  that  this  problem  is  to  be  met.  The  state 

85 


HOUSING    REFORM 

can  most  appropriately  extend  the  strong  arm  of 
the  law  toward  those  weaker  members  of  the 
community  who  are  unable  to  protect  themselves. 
It  is  clearly  within  its  duties  to  protect  the  com- 
munity to  the  fullest  degree  from  the  consequences 
of  lack  of  foresight  and  from  the  willingness  on 
the  part  of  individuals  to  exploit  their  weaker 
brothers. 

There  are,  however,  constitutional  and  legal 
limitations  which  must  be  observed,  and  it  is  well 
that  there  are  such  limitations.  It  is  not  the 
function  of  the  state  to  impose  upon  its  citizens 
through  legislative  mandate  the  desires  of  a  lim- 
ited number  of  the  community  to  secure  conve- 
niences and  comforts.  Housing  legislation  must 
deal  solely  with  necessities,  with  things  that  re- 
late to  the  public  welfare.  It  must  distinguish 
between  what  is  desirable  and  what  is  essential, 
between  what  a  philanthropist  may  voluntarily  do 
and  what  the  state  may  legally  require. 


86 


IX 

ESSENTIAL   PRINCIPLES  OF  A   HOUSING 
LAW 


IX 

ESSENTIAL   PRINCIPLES  OF  A   HOUSING 
LAW 

IF  the  solution  of  the  housing  problem  is  to  be 
found  chiefly  in  legislation  preventing   the 
erection  of  objectionable  buildings  and   se- 
curing the  adequate  maintenance  of  all  buildings, 
it  is  important  that  such  legislation  should  be  based 
upon  sound  principles  and  its  limitations  clearly 
defined. 

Such  laws  are  pre-eminently  for  the  use  of  lay- 
men. They  must  be  clearly  understood  not  only 
by  builders  and  architects,  but  also  by  owners  of 
small  properties,  who  are  often  of  foreign  extrac- 
tion, frequently  illiterate  and  unable  to  understand 
complicated  legal  phrases.  The  first  requisite, 
therefore,  is  clearness.  What  the  law  intends 
must  be  quickly  and  readily  grasped.  The  laws 
should  also  be  concise  in  form.  Their  provisions 
should  be  expressed  in  short,  separate  sentences, 
not  in  long,  involved  paragraphs.  Precision  is  of 
vital  importance.  All  terms  should  be  carefully 
defined.  On  the  other  hand,  acts  of  this  nature 
must  be  so  drawn  as  to  stand  the  test  in  the  courts. 
In  a  word,  they  should  be  as  if  written  by  laymen 

89 


HOUSING   REFORM 

for  laymen,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  so  carefully 
drawn  that  every  word  has  its  exact  legal  weight 
and  says  neither  more  nor  less  than  is  intended. 

In  formulating  such  legislation,  one  of  the  essen- 
tial considerations  is  the  importance  of  securing 
uniformity  of  treatment  for  all  persons  affected 
by  its  provisions.  There  must  be  no  discrimina- 
tion between  individuals,  nor  any  opportunity  for 
such  discrimination. 

One  of  the  first  questions  to  be  determined  is 
with  reference  to  the  granting  of  discretionary 
power  to  the  various  enforcing  authorities.  In 
the  earlier  attempts  at  housing  reform,  the  law- 
making  bodies  as  a  rule  hesitate  to  formulate  with 
care  and  precision  the  exact  requirements  to  be 
imposed  upon  builders  and  owners.  Instead, 
realizing  that  their  insufficient  technical  knowledge 
makes  them  unable  to  anticipate  the  various 
practical  questions  that  may  arise,  they  enact 
sweeping  prohibitions  and  leave  the  details  to 
the  judgment  of  the  Superintendent  of  Buildings 
or  Commissioner  of  Health. 

While  theoretically  in  many  cases  it  would  seem 
desirable  to  entrust  discretionary  power  to  the 
enforcing  officials — in  fact  many  people  believe 
that  laws  of  this  nature  can  not  be  fairly  enforced 
without  it — the  experience  of  most  cities  shows 
that  the  granting  of  discretionary  power  has  in 
nearly  every  case  led  to  abuse  and  ultimately  to 
nullification  of  the  law.  If  one  stops  to  consider 
it,  it  is  not  strange  that  this  should  be  so.  What 

90 


ESSENTIAL    PRINCIPLES    OF    A    HOUSING    LAW 

generally  happens  is  well  illustrated  in  the  ex- 
perience of  New  York  City. 

Here  in  1895  it  was  provided  in  a  law  enacted 
in  that  year,  that  no  tenement  house  erected  after 
that  date  should  occupy  more  than  65  per  cent  of 
the  lot.  This  was  the  clear  intention  of  the 
framers  of  the  law.  They,  however,  added  a 
clause  to  the  effect  that  where  the  light  and  ven- 
tilation of  a  building  was  materially  improved  the 
Superintendent  of  Buildings  might  permit  a  greater 
percentage  of  the  lot  to  be  occupied,  but  in  no 
case  more  than  75  per  cent.  In  a  word,  they  de- 
parted from  their  original  purpose  of  definitely 
limiting  the  amount  of  land  to  be  occupied,  be- 
lieving that  the  enforcing  officer  might  be  per- 
mitted to  use  his  judgment  and  permit  a  larger 
proportion  to  be  covered  in  special  cases. 

Now  what  actually  happened?  Within  a  year, 
every  tenement  house  that  was  erected  occupied 
the  full  75  per  cent  of  the  lot.  No  one  even  thought 
of  covering  any  less  and  from  the  very  nature  of 
things,  nothing  else  could  have  been  expected. 
If  one  architect  presents  a  plan  for  a  new  building 
and  the  Superintendent  of  Buildings  permits  him 
to  occupy  75  per  cent  of  the  lot,  a  competing  archi- 
tect a  few  weeks  later  in  submitting  his  plans  will 
demand  that  he  too  be  permitted  to  occupy  as 
much.  So  gradually  every  architect  insists  upon 
his  right  to  cover  as  much  of  the  lot  as  his  pre- 
decessors have  done. 

There  are,  however,  graver  abuses  connected 
9« 


HOUSING    REFORM 

with  the  grant  and  exercise  of  discretionary  power. 
Nothing  leads  to  municipal  corruption  so  rapidly 
as  leaving  indefinitely  to  a  single  official  the  deter- 
mination of  what  shall  be  done  in  individual  cases 
without  possibility  of  review.  Favored  architects 
in  a  short  time,  because  of  their  friendship  or 
political  influence,  or  because  of  a  corrupt  under- 
standing with  the  enforcing  official,  are  gradually 
able  to  crowd  out  of  business  competitors  without 
these  advantages  or  who  are  unwilling  to  adopt 
the  methods  employed  by  their  less  scrupulous 
rivals.  In  a  short  time  a  situation  develops  by 
which  a  few  firms  of  architects  or  builders  control 
the  entire  business  of  a  community. 

Further  forms  of  corruption  and  favoritism  are 
found  in  practices  which  flow  from  this  situation, 
some  of  which  have  become  the  more  accepted 
and  most  successful  forms  of  modern  municipal 
corruption.  The  methods  of  direct  stealing  from 
the  city  which  were  in  vogue  some  years  ago  are 
no  longer  employed  by  even  the  most  corrupt 
public  officials.  Most  of  the  municipal  corruption 
at  the  present  time  is  to  be  found  in  the  furnishing 
of  inside  information  by  which  the  political  friends 
or  business  associates  of  public  officers  are  enabled 
to  make  advantageous  contracts  and  business 
deals — the  "Honest  Graft"  of  recent  fame. 

The  way  in  which  this  operates  in  the  building 
industry  and  in  the  enforcement  of  building  laws 
is  intimately  associated  with  this  question  of  dis- 
cretionary power.  What  often  happens  is  that 

92 


ESSENTIAL    PRINCIPLES   OF    A    HOUSING    LAW 

the  corrupt  city  official  refuses  to  grant  to  some 
architect  or  builder  what  he  has  granted  to  many 
others,  stating  that  the  matter  is  within  his  dis- 
cretion. After  several  negotiations  it  then  devel- 
ops that  if  the  contract  for  erecting  the  building 
in  question — which  may  in  many  cases  amount 
to  thousands  of  dollars — is  placed  with  the  right 
firm  of  builders,  or  if  a  certain  kind  of  material 
is  used,  it  becomes  possible  for  the  city  official 
"upon  further  consideration  of  the  matter"  and 
the  presentation  of  "new  arguments"  to  grant 
authority  to  utilize  methods  of  construction  which 
had  previously  been  denied. 

1 1  is  a  very  bad  principle  to  make  your  enforc- 
ing officer  also  your  law-making  body.  The  two 
functions  should  be  kept  separate.  If  the  Super- 
intendent of  Buildings  or  the  Health  Commissioner 
is  competent  to  determine  what  the  requirements 
shall  be  in  a  given  case,  there  is  no  reason  why 
he  should  not  indicate  these  facts  in  advance  to 
the  members  of  the  Legislature  and  have  such 
determination  embodied  in  the  laws  of  the  State, 
thus  enabling  all  citizens  to  know  with  certainty 
what  they  may  do  and  may  not  do,  and  so  remove 
opportunities  for  favoritism  and  corruption. 

Every  group  of  persons  taking  up  housing  reform 
will  have  to  face  this  situation.  Pressure  will 
always  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them  by  the  local 
enforcing  authorities  to  grant  to  them  large  dis- 
cretionary power.  Experience  shows  that  this  is 
not  desirable.  With  regard  to  buildings  erected 

93 


HOUSING    REFORM 

in  the  future,  there  should  be  no  discretionary 
power  of  any  kind.  In  considering,  however, 
laws  requiring  the  structural  alteration  or  recon- 
struction of  the  older  houses,  the  situation  is 
different.  Here  it  will  be  found,  owing  to  the 
widely  varying  conditions  in  different  buildings, 
which  make  impracticable  the  carrying  out  of  rigid 
requirements,  that  a  limited  discretion  must  be 
given  to  the  enforcing  authorities. 

In  general,  however,  every  effort  should  be  made 
to  avoid  indefinite  and  vague  grants  of  power. 
Pains  should  be  taken,  even  though  it  takes  a 
longer  time  and  involves  more  work,  to  state  in  the 
law  precisely  what  owners  and  builders  may  do. 
Wherever  it  is  necessary  to  grant  discretionary 
power  it  should  be  limited  and  clearly  defined. 
Provision  should  be  made  for  proper  publicity 
in  connection  with  the  exercise  of  such  power, 
so  that  those  interested  may  acquaint  themselves 
with  the  rulings  that  have  been  made  and  may 
insist  that  the  privileges  which  have  been  granted 
to  others  shall  be  equally  granted  to  them. 

In  formulating  a  housing  law  its  relation  to 
other  similar  statutes  must  be  taken  into  careful 
consideration.  In  nearly  every  community  there 
will  be  found  sanitary  codes  or  ordinances,  build- 
ing and  health  laws  and  plumbing  regulations. 
In  each  one  of  these  will  be  found  something  bear- 
ing on  housing  conditions.  Any  tenement  house 
act  to  be  effective  must  be  framed  with  reference 
to  these  other  closely  allied  subjects.  There  is 

94 


ESSENTIAL    PRINCIPLES    OF    A    HOUSING    LAW 

danger  in  this  work,  especially  where  various 
portions  of  housing  codes  are  formulated  by  sub- 
committees of  a  larger  body,  of  framing  each 
individual  provision  only  with  reference  to  itself 
and  without  regard  to  its  place  in  the  general 
scheme  or  plan.  Care  must  be  taken  to  prevent 
conflict  between  different  provisions  of  the  same 
act  and  also  to  avoid  similar  conflict  between  the 
provisions  of  the  housing  law  in  question  and 
similar  enactments  already  on  the  statute  books. 

Future  tendencies  must  be  considered  as  well 
as  present  conditions.  An  excellent  illustration 
of  this  is  had  in  the  failure  to  realize  in  earlier 
years  the  developments  that  would  come  with 
regard  to  the  greater  depth  of  the  buildings  and  the 
necessity  of  larger  yard  spaces.  When  the  first 
Tenement  House  Act  in  America  was  passed  in 
1867,  it  provided  that  no  building  erected  after 
that  date  should  have  a  yard  less  than  10  feet 
in  depth.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  at  that  time  few 
builders  thought  of  building  a  tenement  house  with 
a  yard  less  than  50  feet  in  depth.  The  provision 
of  the  law,  therefore,  was  of  little  practical  effect. 

If  the  persons  who  were  responsible  for  the 
framing  of  that  law  forty  years  ago  had  realized 
that  in  subsequent  years  conditions  would  seriously 
change  and  that  there  might  be  a  desire  on  the  part 
of  builders  to  cover  more  and  more  of  the  land 
by  building  the  houses  deeper  on  the  lots  and  thus 
leaving  less  and  less  space  open  for  light  and  air 
they  undoubtedly  would  have  incorporated  in 

95 


HOUSING    REFORM 

the  statutes  of  that  time  a  provision  that  the  yards 
in  future  tenement  houses  should  be  of  no  less 
depth  than  they  actually  were  at  the  time,  namely, 
50  feet.  This  could  have  been  done  then  without 
difficulty. 

No  one  objects  to  the  prohibition  of  something 
he  does  not  want  to  do.  1 1  would  at  the  immediate 
time  it  is  true  have  been  no  more  controlling  than 
the  provision  for  yards  of  i  o  feet,  because  no  one 
then  desired  to  build  houses  deeper  than  50  feet; 
but  it  would  have  had  incalculable  value  in  setting 
a  standard  which  presumably  could  have  been 
adhered  to  in  subsequent  years.  If  the  law  had 
then  fixed  the  minimum  depth  of  yards  at  50 
feet  there  would  not  have  been  through  all  those 
following  forty  years  a  gradual  encroachment 
upon  the  yard  space,  and  the  building  of  the  house 
first  60  feet  deep,  then  70  feet  deep,  then  80  feet 
deep  and  finally  90  feet  deep.  The  builder,  finding 
that  the  law  prohibited  any  such  depth  and 
required  that  a  yard  of  50  feet  be  left,  would 
have  found  no  opportunity  to  change  and  the 
consequent  artificial  stimulation  of  land  values 
would  not  have  arisen.  It  is  a  very  wise  maxim 
never  to  set  your  standards  lower  than  the 
standards  that  are  actually  adhered  to  at  the  time 
the  law  is  enacted. 

If  the  prevailing  height  of  tenement  houses  that 
are  being  erected  in  a  given  community  is  three 
stories  and  you  are  formulating  a  new  housing 
law,  keep  the  height  that  the  law  permits  such 

96 


ESSENTIAL    PRINCIPLES    OF    A    HOUSING    LAW 

buildings  to  be  erected  at  the  standard  which 
then  exists,  namely,  three  stories.  If  the  then 
standard  is  five  stories  you  cannot  hope,  in  all 
probability,  to  reduce  it.  Do  not  assume  that  it 
is  unnecessary  to  make  an  enactment  upon  that 
subject  and  make  no  mention  of  it  in  your  law, 
but  embody  in  your  statute  the  standard  which 
you  find  existing  at  that  time,  unless  the  sentiment 
of  the  community  is  strongly  in  favor  of  a  higher 
one.  The  failure  to  observe  these  principles  may 
mean  that  you  will  have  a  city  built  up  of  six- 
story  tenements  instead  of  three-story  dwellings, 
with  all  that  that  means  in  congestion  of  popula- 
tion, prevalence  of  tuberculosis  and  other  social 
problems. 


97 


X 

WHAT  A  HOUSING  LAW  SHOULD  CONTAIN 


X 
WHAT  A  HOUSING  LAW  SHOULD  CONTAIN 

WHAT,  it  may  be  asked,  are  the  important 
things  which  a  housing  law  should  con- 
tain? While  requirements  will  differ 
necessarily  in  each  community,  there  are  certain 
fundamental  things  which  should  be  found  in  every 
housing  law.  They  must  all  alike  regulate  the  con- 
struction of  new  buildings,  provide  for  the  proper 
maintenance  of  all  buildings  and  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  embody  plans  for  the  improvement 
and  alteration  of  the  older  buildings.  In  addition, 
they  must  deal  with  questions  of  light,  ventilation, 
sanitation,  plumbing,  drainage,  fire  protection, 
and  to  some  extent  with  certain  social  questions. 
Probably  the  most  difficult  question  to  deal  with 
is  the  question  of  light  and  ventilation — most 
difficult  in  the  large  cities,  least  understood  in  the 
smaller  ones,  but  fortunately  more  easy  to  handle 
in  the  latter  because  of  the  lack  as  yet  of  any 
serious  evils  in  such  places.  How  are  adequate 
light  and  ventilation  to  be  secured?  In  the  first 
place,  the  problem  of  getting  it  in  buildings  erected 
in  the  future  is  quite  distinct  from  the  problem 
of  getting  it  in  buildings  that  are  already  built. 

101 


HOUSING    REFORM 

Let  us  consider  first  the  buildings  hereafter  to 
be  erected.  Here  it  is  necessary  to  make  sure 
that  every  room,  every  hall,  every  water-closet 
compartment  and  bath  room,  every  cellar,  in  a 
word,  every  part  of  the  building,  shall  have  ade- 
quate light  and  ventilation.  How  is  this  to  be 
done?  In  the  first  place  the  street  on  which  the 
building  is  to  be  located  must  be  wide  enough  to 
insure  this.  The  streets  are  already  there  and  of 
course  cannot  be  changed.  But  if  a  street  is  too 
narrow,  the  law  must  prohibit  the  erection  there 
of  houses  of  undue  height. 

The  next  important  step  is  to  make  sure  that 
the  yard  at  the  rear  of  the  building  is  of  sufficient 
size,  because  all  the  light  and  air  that  come  into 
the  rear  rooms  must  come  through  this  yard. 
Moreover,  such  yards  must  be  considered  from 
a  neighborhood  point  of  view.  Light  and  ventila- 
tion must  not  be  considered  with  reference  to  a 
particular  building  only,  but  with  regard  to  the  ef- 
fect if  the  whole  block  were  similarly  built  up.  In 
general  the  only  adequate,  rational  and  satisfac- 
tory method  is  to  regulate  the  size  of  open  spaces, 
left  to  provide  light  and  air,  in  relation  to  the 
height  of  the  building.  Where  buildings  are  but 
two  stories  high,  a  yard  20  feet  deep  may  be  en- 
tirely adequate;  where,  however,  buildings  are  six 
stories  high  a  much  larger  yard  is  necessary,  and 
where  they  are  twenty  stories  high  and  the  neigh- 
boring buildings  are  of  similar  height,  very  much 
larger  open  spaces  are  essential. 

1 02 


WHAT   A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD   CONTAIN 

Important  as  this  principle  is,  there  is  hardly 
any  American  city  which  has  as  yet  adopted  it. 
Heretofore  the  method  of  determining  these  ques- 
tions has  been  largely  by  rule  of  thumb. 

It  will  not  do,  however,  to  concern  oneself 
solely  with  the  width  of  the  street  and  the  size  of 
the  yards.  If  a  house  is  built  more  than  24  feet 
deep,  it  will  necessarily  exceed  two  rooms  in 
depth.  The  minute  it  does  this  a  host  of  problems 
arise.  When  it  is  but  two  rooms  deep  everything 
is  simple — one  room  opens  on  the  street,  the  other 
on  the  yard.  When,  however,  it  is  four  rooms 
deep,  and  even  seven  or  eight  rooms  deep,  the 
situation  becomes  complicated.  The  problem  is 
this:  How  are  the  interior  rooms  to  be  adequately 
lighted  and  ventilated? 

In  the  earliest  days  no  effort  was  made  to  pro- 
vide light  or  ventilation  for  such  rooms.  The 
earliest  types  of  houses  that  were  built  specifically 
as  tenements,  were  houses  that  were  four  rooms 
in  depth:  one  room  opening  on  the  street,  another 
on  the  yard,  and  between  them  interior  rooms 
securing  their  only  light  and  ventilation  through 
doorways  into  the  outer  rooms. 

In  somewhat  later  years  an  effort  was  made  to 
secure  some  ventilation  for  such  inner  rooms,  by 
requiring  that  they  should  have  air-flues  extending 
to  the  roof.  In  many  cities  this  resulted  in  the 
construction  of  air-flues  about  the  size  of  one  brick; 
in  some,  in  the  building  of  chimneys.  Gradually 
from  this  developed  the  so-called  "  air-shaft,"  and 

103 


HOUSING    REFORM 

later  came  the  requirement  in  the  law  that  all 
rooms  should  open  either  directly  to  the  outer  air 
or  upon  air-shafts. 

None  of  these  requirements  accomplished  the 
purpose  that  was  intended  because  they  lacked 
sufficient  precision.  To  provide  simply  that  a 
room  shall  open  upon  an  air-shaft  is  of  little  value 
as  a  means  of  furnishing  light,  if  it  results,  as  it 
has,  in  rooms  so  dark  that  one  has  to  light  a 
match  to  find  the  shaft!  Also  of  little  value  for 
ventilating  purposes  if  the  air  in  the  shaft  is  so 
stagnant  that  tenants  prefer  to  keep  their  windows 
closed. 

The  next  step  was  to  require  that  air-shafts 
should  be  of  a  certain  minimum  area  in  square  feet. 
This  also  failed  of  its  purpose  because  architects 
and  builders  then  proceeded  to  build  long,  narrow 
air-shafts  but  a  few  inches  in  width  and  many  feet 
in  length.  These  provided  neither  adequate  light 
nor  proper  ventilation,  but  complied  with  the  legal 
requirements. 

Finally  there  was  evolved  the  present  system, 
found  in  the  New  York  law,  by  which  every  room 
is  required  to  open  either  upon  the  street  or  upon 
a  yard  of  a  certain  minimum  depth>  or  upon  a 
court  of  a  certain  minimum  width  and  length,  with 
the  further  provision  that  these  minimum  spaces 
shall  be  materially  increased  with  an  increase  in 
the  height  of  the  building,  and  may  be  decreased 
for  a  lower  building.  Provision  must  also  be 
made  for  the  frequent  renewal  of  the  air  at 

104 


WHAT   A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD    CONTAIN 

the  bottom  of  courts  by  means  of  tunnels  or 
intakes. 

Only  after  thirty-four  years  of  effort  have  we  ar- 
rived at  an  adequate  method  of  insuring  proper 
light  and  ventilation  in  new  tenement  houses. 

But  even  with  all  of  this  done,  there  is  still 
more  to  be  considered  in  securing  adequate  light 
and  ventilation.  The  size  of  the  rooms  must  also 
be  provided  for  and  a  minimum  established. 
Here,  too,  it  is  not  safe  to  rely  upon  the  amount  of 
cubic  air  space  as  a  standard  any  more  than  it 
was  safe  to  count  upon  providing  that  courts  or 
shafts  should  be  of  a  certain  area.  A  minimum 
height  for  rooms  must  be  fixed  as  well  as  a  mini- 
mum floor  area.  Similar  measures  should  be  taken 
with  regard  to  public  halls  and  stairs,  water- 
closet  compartments  and  bathrooms,  and  cellars. 

The  problem  of  letting  light  and  air  into  dark 
and  badly  ventilated  rooms  already  built  is  a 
totally  different  and  very  difficult  one.  The  errors 
of  former  years  are  now  unfortunately  crystallized 
in  brick  and  mortar.  In  most  cases  it  is  impossible 
to  make  changes  that  will  be  really  adequate. 
Rooms  that  were  originally  not  provided  with 
windows  opening  directly  to  the  outer  air  can 
never  be  made  entirely  satisfactory. 

All  that  anyone  can  hope  to  do  is  to  make  such 
houses  reasonably  habitable,  letting  in  as  much 
light  and  air  as  can  be  obtained  by  methods  that 
are  practicable.  Wherever  it  is  possible  to  cut 
windows  into  an  exterior  wall  letting  light  and  air 

105 


HOUSING    REFORM 

enter  the  room  from  a  yard  or  from  open  spaces 
on  adjoining  premises,  it  should  be  done.  Where 
this  cannot  be  done,  there  are  two  methods  by 
which  light  can  be  provided  for  interior  rooms 
in  old  buildings.  The  simplest  method  is  by 
requiring  the  cutting  of  a  large  window  in  the 
partition  separating  the  dark  interior  room  from 
an  adjoining  room.  By  this  method  a  consider- 
able amount  of  light  is  let  into  the  room  which 
before  was  quite  dark.  The  ventilation  is  also 
improved.  Such  window  to  be  adequate  should 
be  about  3  by  5  feet  in  size  and  these  dimensions 
should  be  specified  in  any  law  attempting  to  deal 
with  the  subject. 

The  other  method  of  supplying  light  to  interior 
rooms  is  by  requiring  the  construction  in  the  old 
buildings  of  a  new  light  shaft.  This,  however, 
is  a  difficult  matter.  In  the  first  place  it  generally 
involves  heavy  expense.  It  often  means  the 
weakening  of  the  building  structurally  to  such 
an  extent  that  very  substantial  alterations  become 
necessary.  It  also  means  as  a  rule  losing  rentable 
floor  space  on  each  floor.  There  is  of  course  no 
use  in  requiring  an  alteration  of  this  nature  unless 
the  light  shaft  that  is  thus  provided  is  of  sufficient 
size  to  really  furnish  adequate  light  and  ventila- 
tion to  the  interior  rooms  in  question.  If  the 
shaft  is  an  inner  one,  that  is,  enclosed  on  four 
sides,  it  will  be  found  that  a  shaft  less  than  10  feet 
in  its  minimum  dimension  for  a  four-story  building 
is  not  adequate.  Generally  it  is  not  practicable 

1 06 


WHAT    A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD   CONTAIN 

to  construct  a  shaft  of  this  size  in  an  ordinary 
house. 

Moreover,  a  new  shaft  of  this  kind  is  a  fire 
menace  unless  built  of  fireproof  material  and  to 
require  a  new  fireproof  shaft  in  the  older,  non- 
fireproof  buildings  is  somewhat  of  an  anomaly. 
On  the  whole,  except  in  rare  instances,  it  will  be 
found  that  this  method  of  securing  light  and 
ventilation  is  not  one  which  can  be  wisely  em- 
bodied in  a  housing  law. 

The  requirement  of  structural  changes  of  any 
kind  in  an  existing  building  should  be  approached 
with  great  care,  and  only  those  things  which  are 
vitally  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  community 
should  be  included  in  a  housing  law. 

The  alterations  required  must  not  only  be 
practicable  from  a  structural  point  of  view  but 
financially  practicable  also.  It  is  manifestly 
unwise  to  impose  upon  the  owner  of  a  building 
requirements  in  the  way  of  structural  improve- 
ments that  involve  expenditures  out  of  proportion 
to  its  revenue-producing  possibilities.  If  there  are 
conditions  in  individual  buildings  which  render 
them  unfit  for  human  habitation,  there  should  be 
no  hesitation  in  forbidding  their  occupancy. 
This,  however,  is  a  very  different  matter  from 
requiring  by  law  specific  structural  alterations  in 
all  buildings  of  a  certain  class. 

Every  housing  law  should  contain  for  both  new 
and  old  houses  requirements  with  regard  to  sani- 

107 


HOUSING    REFORM 

tation,  plumbing,  drainage  and  adequate  water 
supply. 

Here  are  involved  some  of  the  most  important 
problems  that  a  community  has  to  deal  with. 
All  those  questions  which  may  be  described  under 
the  term  "good  housekeeping"  are  included: 
care  of  the  premises,  proper  maintenance,  cleanli- 
ness, condition  of  the  out-premises,  absence  of 
poisonous  sewer  gases,  dampness,  &c.  Here,  too, 
the  problem  of  securing  proper  sanitation  in  new 
buildings  is  very  different  from  that  of  obtaining 
it  in  those  houses  that  are  already  built.  In 
buildings  that  are  erected  in  the  future  it  is  a 
clear  proposition  that  wherever  there  is  a  system 
of  public  sewers,  every  house  intended  for  occu- 
pancy by  more  than  one  family  (and  indeed  every 
dwelling  house)  should  be  equipped  with  a  proper 
system  of  modern  sanitary  plumbing.  Nothing 
else  is  to  be  thought  of. 

In  a  community  of  any  considerable  size,  to 
compel  people  to  use  antiquated  privies  instead 
of  modern  water-closets,  is  a  relic  of  barbarism. 
If  the  community  is  not  large  enough  to  be  able 
to  afford  a  system  of  public  sewers,  there  is  not 
the  slightest  reason  why  multiple  dwellings  should 
be  erected,  as  there  is  plenty  of  room  and  land 
values  are  low,  and  it  is  entirely  feasible  for  each 
family  to  have  its  own  dwelling.  In  general  no 
community  ought  to  permit  the  erection  of  a 
tenement  house  on  a  street  in  which  there  is  no 
sewer. 

1 08 


WHAT   A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD   CONTAIN 

It  should  not  be  difficult  to  secure  modern, 
sanitary  plumbing  in  any  city.  The  essential 
things  are  that  the  materials  used  should  be  of 
sufficiently  good  quality  to  stand  the  average  wear. 
Plumbing  pipes  should  be  of  a  material  that  is 
durable  and  does  not  lend  itself  easily  to  leaks. 
Fixtures  should  be  of  a  modern  nature  and  simple 
in  form,  not  some  complicated  watch-like  mechan- 
ism easily  put  out  of  order,  nor  of  such  antiquated 
form  as  to  lead  to  sanitary  abuses  and  to  render 
difficult  their  being  kept  in  a  cleanly  condition. 
Joints  in  pipes  should  be  gas-tight;  all  fixtures 
should  be  adequately  trapped  and  vented;  plumb- 
ing should  so  far  as  practicable  be  "open"  or 
exposed;  sewer  connections  should  generally  be 
separate;  the  use  of  earthenware  or  tile  sewer 
pipes  should  be  prohibited;  objectionable  types 
of  closets,  such  as  long  hoppers  and  pan  closets, 
should  not  be  permitted. 

Adequate  drainage  of  out-premises  and  of  roofs 
should  be  accomplished  by  means  of  proper  leaders,, 
gutters  and  drains.  In  multiple"  dwellings  each 
family  should  have  its  own  separate  water-closet. 
The  use  of  such  conveniences  in  common  leads  to 
serious  social  evils  and  should  not  be  tolerated  in 
future  buildings.  In  addition,  such  conveniences 
should  be  entirely  within  the  control  of  the  indi- 
vidual family  and  should  not  be  located  in  public 
parts  of  the  house.  This  is  essential  not  only  for 
the  comfort  and  convenience  of  the  family,  but  also 

109 


HOUSING    REFORM 

advantageous  to  the  owner  as  it  enables  him  to 
centre  responsibility  for  sanitary  abuses. 

Each  family  should  have  its  own  supply  of  city 
water  in  at  least  one  place  in  the  apartment.  It 
is  useless  to  expect  people  to  be  clean  or  to  be 
good  citizens  if  they  do  not  have  a  generous  supply 
of  water.  Cleanliness  is  indeed  next  to  godliness. 
Involved  in  this  also  is  the  question  of  preven- 
tion of  disease.  The  workingman  must  be  able  to 
maintain  his  physical  condition  at  a  high  standard 
if  he  is  to  resist  attacks  of  disease.  There  should 
therefore  be,  as  a  matter  of  legal  requirement, 
an  adequate  supply  of  water  in  all  dwelling  houses. 

The  question  of  providing  stationary  washtubs 
and  bathtubs  is,  however,  quite  different.  These 
must  be  considered  as  in  the  nature  of  conveni- 
ences not  necessities  and  matters  the  law  should 
not  deal  with.  It  will  be  generally  found,  how- 
ever, that  enlightened  builders  will  in  self-interest 
make  provision  for  stationary  tubs,  where  the  law 
requires  them  to  provide  a  sink  and  running  water. 
The  question  of  whether  housing  laws  should 
require  builders  to  furnish  bathtubs  in  new  houses 
is  one  which  has  perhaps  been  debated  more  than 
any  other  question.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
opportunity  for  bathing,  and  bathing  frequently, 
is  a  necessity.  But  if  an  ample  supply  of  run- 
ning water  is  provided  for  every  family,  they 
can  avail  themselves  of  opportunities  for  frequent 
bathing,  though  of  course  not  with  the  same  con- 
venience and  comfort  as  if  bathtubs  were  provided. 

no 


WHAT   A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD    CONTAIN 

The  experience  of  New  York  in  this  regard 
may  perhaps  be  suggestive  for  other  communities. 
When  the  Tenement  House  Commission  of  1900 
was  considering  these  questions  it  had  urged  upon 
it  with  considerable  earnestness  the  suggestion 
that  the  tenement  house  law  should  include  a 
compulsory  requirement  for  a  bathtub  in  every 
apartment  in  each  tenement  house  erected  in  the 
future.  Many  others  urged  that  if  this  could  not 
be  done,  the  law  should  require  a  limited  number 
of  baths  to  be  provided  for  the  use  of  the  tenants, 
in  the  cellar  or  some  other  public  part  of  the 
building. 

After  careful  consideration  of  this  whole  ques- 
tion the  Commission  reached  the  conclusion  that 
any  requirement  of  law  for  baths  to  be  used  in 
common  by  the  tenants  of  a  tenement  house, 
would  be  unwise,  would  set  back  the  movement 
for  bathing  facilities  many  years  and  would  result 
in  the  abuse  and  ultimate  removal  of  such  equip- 
ment. It  was  also  felt  that  to  require  a  private 
bath  for  each  family  as  a  matter  of  law,  was  not 
practicable  and  might  with  difficulty  be  sustained 
if  attacked  in  the  courts.  The  Commission,  how- 
ever, having  provided  that  in  new  tenements  each 
family  should  have  its  own  private  water-closet 
within  the  apartment,  believed  that  builders  would 
at  the  same  time  on  their  own  initiative  add  a 
bathtub,  as  this  could  be  done  at  very  little  cost 
and  would  mean  that  the  apartment  would  bring 
a  slightly  increased  rental.  That  this  view  of  the 

in 


HOUSING    REFORM 

case  was  sound  has  been  amply  proved  by  the 
result  under  eight  years'  operation  of  the  tenement 
house  law.  Although  that  law  requires  no  bath- 
ing facilities  whatever  in  new  tenements,  in  86 
per  cent  of  all  the  new  houses  erected,  private 
baths  for  each  family  have  been  provided  by  the 
builders,  of  their  own  volition. 

The  proper  maintenance  of  all  tenement  houses, 
as  well  as  of  all  dwellings  occupied  by  the  poor,  is 
a  question  that  vitally  concerns  every  community. 
Primarily  the  evils  which  are  generally  found  are 
due  to  two  factors:  The  neglect  of  the  owner  to 
care  for  those  parts  of  the  building  that  are  within 
his  control,  and  secondly  the  neglect  and  misuse 
by  the  tenants  of  the  facilities  with  which  they 
are  provided.  Let  there  be  no  mistake  with 
regard  to  this.  This  is  not  a  one-sided  question. 
The  unsanitary  conditions  which  exist  in  dwellings 
of  this  kind  are  not  by  any  means  entirely  due  to 
the  tenants;  nor  are  they  on  the  other  hand  en- 
tirely due  to  the  landlord.  The  responsibility 
must  be  shared  by  each. 

Every  housing  law  must  provide  some  scheme 
by  which  houses  of  this  nature  may  be  maintained 
in  proper  condition.  An  important  factor  in 
this  situation  is  the  requirement  that  where 
buildings  are  occupied  by  a  number  of  families 
there  shall  be  a  resident  caretaker  or  janitor  on 
the  premises  responsible  to  the  landlord  for  the 
conditions.  In  all  of  the  larger  buildings — that 
is,  where  there  are  more  than  six  families  in  a 

I  12 


WHAT    A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD   CONTAIN 

house — this  is  essential.  It  is  desirable  even 
where  there  are  fewer  families,  but  not  always 
practicable  from  the  owner's  point  of  view.  Of 
course  where  the  owner  resides  in  the  house  him- 
self, as  is  frequently  the  case,  such  a  requirement 
is  not  necessary. 

Experience  shows  that  the  danger  points  in  the 
tenement  house  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view  are 
the  public  parts  of  the  building  for  which  no  one 
is  responsible:  cellars,  yards,  roofs,  halls,  stairs, 
out-premises,  &c.  What  is  everybody's  business 
is  generally  nobody's  business.  Individual  tenants 
do  not  feel  much  responsibility  or  concern  for 
the  care  of  such  portions  of  the  building;  being 
used  in  common,  they  are  apt  to  be  frequently 
abused,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  under  these 
circumstances,  to  fix  responsibility  for  abuse. 

A  housing  law  should  provide  that  all  parts  of 
the  building  shall  be  kept  clean  and  free  from  accu- 
mulations of  dirt;  that  the  owner  shall  be  required 
to  thoroughly  cleanse  all  parts  of  the  building 
whenever  directed  by  the  appropriate  authorities; 
that  the  cellar  floors  shall  be  free  from  dampness; 
that  the  cellar  walls  and  ceilings  shall  be  white- 
washed or  painted  at  reasonable  intervals;  that 
the  house  and  all  portions  of  it  shall  be  kept  in 
good  repair;  that  the  roof  shall  not  leak  and  that 
all  rain  water  shall  be  carried  off  to  the  sewer, 
where  a  sewer  exists,  so  as  to  prevent  dampness 
in  the  walls  or  in  the  yards  or  areas;  that  proper 
receptacles  for  ashes,  garbage  and  other  waste 
8  113 


HOUSING    REFORM 

matter  shall  be  provided  in  sufficient  quantity; 
that  there  shall  be  running  water  at  least  in  one 
place  on  every  floor  of  the  building. 

With  regard  to  protection  in  case  of  fire,  the 
main  provision  of  any  housing  law  is  the  require- 
ment that  there  shall  be  adequate  fire-escapes 
for  the  use  of  each  family  so  that  in  the  event  of 
fire  the  tenants  may  have  every  reasonable 
opportunity  to  escape  without  loss  of  life.  The 
standards  as  to  what  constitutes  adequate  fire- 
escapes  will  differ  in  different  places.  In  general 
it  is  clear  that  fire-escapes  of  which  wooden  bal- 
conies or  wooden  stairs  or  ladders  are  an  inte- 
gral part  are  not  safe;  that  rope  ladders  and  all 
similar  kinds  of  appliances,  including  wire,  steel 
and  cable  ladder  fire-escapes,  are  inadequate  for 
houses  of  this  kind. 

Fire-escapes  should  consist  of  outside  balconies 
either  of  iron  or  stone.  Iron  will  be  generally 
found  to  be  the  best,  cheapest  and  most  practica- 
ble. In  houses  erected  in  the  future  the  fire- 
escape  balconies  should  be  connected  by  stairs, 
the  only  satisfactory  means  of  connection,  and 
these  stairs  should  be  placed  at  an  angle  suffi- 
ciently inclined  to  permit  easy  descent  by  the  ten- 
ants— not  only  by  able-bodied  men  used  to  climb- 
ing ladders,  but  also  by  women,  children  and  old 
people. 

It  is  important  that  the  fire-escapes  shall  not 
only  be  adequate  but  shall  seem  adequate  to  the 
tenants  so  that  they  will  trust  themselves  to  them 

114 


WHAT   A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD   CONTAIN 

in  case  of  fire.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  most 
people  could  go  up  and  down  a  vertical  ladder 
such  as  is  provided  for  many  fire-escapes,  but 
women,  children  and  old  people  in  the  excitement 
and  panic  of  fire  will  not  do  so.  If  that  is  the 
case,  vertical  ladders  are  of  little  value  as  fire- 
escapes  for  tenement  houses. 

The  fire-escape  balconies  should  be  of  sufficient 
width,  should  be  strong,  should  contain  openings  of 
adequate  size  and  should  be  so  located  as  to  afford 
the  quickest  escape.  The  best  place  for  a  fire- 
escape  balcony  is  on  the  front  of  the  building, 
because  in  case  of  fire  the  people  naturally  run 
to  the  street;  that  is  the  quarter  from  which  they 
are  expecting  help  from  the  firemen;  that  is  the 
normal  place  to  go.  In  many  cases,  however, 
it  is  necessary  for  the  fire-escapes  to  be  placed  on 
the  rear  of  the  building  as  well  as  on  the  front. 
This  is  so  in  every  instance  where  there  are  sepa- 
rate apartments  in  the  rear  which  do  not  extend 
to  the  street.  In  such  cases,  care  should  be  taken 
to  provide  for  a  proper  and  safe  means  of  egress 
from  the  yard  to  the  street,  as  it  will  do  little  good 
to  allow  the  tenants  to  escape  to  the  yard  if  they 
are  trapped  there. 

Fire-escapes  are  quite  as  much  for  the  use  of  the 
firemen  as  they  are  for  the  use  of  the  tenants. 
In  the  large  cities  they  are  provided,  not  only  to 
enable  the  tenants  to  get  out  of  the  building  but 
also  to  enable  the  firemen  to  get  quickly  to  the 
fire  and  rescue  those  tenants  who  are  unable  to 

"5 


HOUSING    REFORM 

descend  in  safety.  They  are  also  quite  as  much 
to  be  used  for  ascent  as  for  descent.  Often  the 
best  means  of  escape  in  a  fire  is  to  the  roof  and 
from  the  roof  of  the  building  to  an  adjoining  house. 
That  is  why  it  is  generally  provided  in  tenement 
houses  that  the  public  stairs  shall  extend  to  the 
roof.  Often,  however,  escape  this  way  is  cut  off. 
Then  the  fire-escapes  become  of  especial  value. 

In  addition  to  providing  fire-escapes,  fire  pro- 
tection in  new  buildings  may  be  secured  through 
the  limitation  of  the  height  of  non-fireproof 
houses  and  the  requirement  that  the  public  parts 
of  the  building,  especially  those  portions  that  are 
known  to  be  danger  points,  shall  be  constructed 
in  such  way  as  to  safeguard  the  lives  of  the  tenants. 

Experience  shows  that  in  the  ordinary  tenement 
house  one-quarter  of  all  the  fires  start  in  the  cel- 
lar. The  cellars  and  the  public  halls  and  stairs 
are  the  danger  points.  It  is  therefore  desirable 
in  constructing  new  houses,  to  shut  off  the  cellar 
from  the  rest  of  the  building.  This  is  done  in  the 
larger  cities  in  the  case  of  buildings  five  and  six 
stories  high  by  requiring  the  construction  of  the 
first  floor  above  the  cellar  to  be  entirely  fireproof — 
that  is,  iron  beams  with  fireproof  filling — and  to 
prohibit  any  openings  in  this  floor.  This  involves 
having  access  to  the  cellar  only  from  the  outside 
of  the  building.  It  is  not  quite  so  convenient  for 
the  tenants,  but  it  has  been  found  to  be  entirely 
practicable  to  have  the  tenants  go  out  into  the 
court  or  yard  to  get  down  into  the  cellar.  Where 

1.6 


WHAT    A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD   CONTAIN 

it  is  necessary  to  extend  a  dumbwaiter  shaft  down 
to  the  cellar  it  is  desirable  to  require  it  to  be 
built  entirely  of  fireproof  construction  and  to 
be  provided  with  fireproof,  self-closing  doors. 

It  is  strange,  that  no  matter  where  a  tenement 
house  fire  starts,  whether  in  the  apartments  on 
the  top  floor  or  on  the  first  floor,  whether  in  the 
cellar  or  in  an  airshaft,  it  invariably  immediately 
gets  to  the  public  halls  and  stairs  of  the  building, 
which  seem  to  act  like  a  gigantic  flue.  It  therefore 
becomes  especially  important  to  see  that  the  halls 
and  stairs  of  such  buildings  are  fireproof  and  are 
shut  of?  from  the  non-fireproof  parts  of  the  build- 
ing. 

The  type  of  tenement  house  that  has  been 
evolved  in  New  York  to  meet  this  situation  is  one 
in  which  the  stairs  and  halls  are  fireproof.  They 
are  enclosed  in  brick  walls  and  the  floors  are 
constructed  of  iron  beams  with  fireproof  filling; 
the  stairs  are  either  iron,  slate  or  marble.  The 
openings  in  the  walls  leading  to  the  apartments  are 
provided  with  self-closing,  fireproof  doors  so  that 
if  a  fire  should  start  in  one  of  the  apartments  it 
can  not  "mushroom  out"  and  spread  to  the  stairs 
and  halls  and  thus  to  the  other  apartments. 

This  type  of  house  has  given  eminent  satisfac- 
tion in  New  York.  It  is  practically  the  main  type 
that  has  been  built  since  the  passage  of  the  Tene- 
ment House  Act  in  1901.  During  that  period  of 
eight  years,  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan  alone 
4506  new  tenement  houses  have  been  built  pro- 

117 


HOUSING    REFORM 

viding  accommodations  for  116,789  families,  or 
approximately  over  half  a  million  people.  There 
has  not,  however,  in  all  this  time  been  a  single  in- 
stance of  a  bad  fire  in  one  of  these  houses;  nor  has 
there  been  any  loss  of  life  from  fire  in  one  of  these 
buildings  nor  any  fire  in  which  any  considerable 
financial  damage  has  resulted.  Thus  far  the  type 
has  stood  the  test  perfectly. 

Beyond  this,  laws  with  regard  to  fire  protection 
should  concern  themselves  with  seeing  that  no 
inflammable  or  dangerous  materials  are  permit- 
ted to  be  stored  in  houses  of  this  nature,  and  that 
no  dangerous  occupations  are  carried  on  in  such 
buildings.  Bakeries,  especially  where  they  boil 
fat,  are  frequently  sources  of  danger. 

In  addition  to  the  questions  of  light  and  ventila- 
tion, sanitation,  plumbing  and  drainage,  and  fire 
protection  above  described,  there  are  questions 
involved  concerning  the  use  and  occupancy  of 
dwellings,  which  should  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion in  every  housing  law.  Cellar  dwellings  are 
among  the  first  evils  to  be  discovered  in  many 
places  and  are  nearly  always  an  unnecessary  evil. 
Sometimes,  in  the  larger  communities  where  hous- 
ing conditions  have  been  neglected  for  many 
years,  they  have  to  be  tolerated  for  a  while.  In 
the  smaller  communities  they  are  nearly  always 
unnecessary  and  should  never  be  tolerated. 

Care,  however,  must  be  taken  to  distinguish 
between  cellars  that  are  fit  for  habitation  and  those 
that  are  not.  As  a  rule,  most  cellars  are  unfit. 

118 


WHAT   A    HOUSING    LAW    SHOULD    CONTAIN 

A  housing  law  must  carefully  regulate  the  occu- 
pancy of  such  places  for  living  purposes.  It 
must  establish  standards  which  will  ensure  proper 
light  and  ventilation  and  freedom  from  dampness. 
The  main  points  to  be  considered  are  the  height 
and  size  of  rooms,  the  sources  of  light  and  air, 
the  height  of  ceiling  above  ground  and  the  na- 
ture of  the  cellar  floor,  with  proper  provision  for 
keeping  out  dampness. 

The  use  of  tenement  houses  by  women  of  im- 
proper character,  in  close  proximity  to  respectable 
people,  is  a  serious  evil  in  some  of  the  larger 
cities  and  one  that  should  be  guarded  against. 
In  most  places  it  will  not  be  found  necessary  to 
include  in  a  tenement  house  law  any  provisions 
dealing  with  this  subject.  Where,  however,  the 
evil  has  appeared  in  tenement  houses  it  should 
be  so  penalized  that  women  of  this  class  will  at 
once  find  it  to  their  advantage  to  remove  from 
such  buildings. 

Restrictions  with  regard  to  the  keeping  of  ani- 
mals on  the  premises  should  be  included  in  most 
housing  laws.  It  will  not  do  to  prohibit  the  keep- 
ing of  all  animals,  as  people  naturally  desire  to 
keep  birds,  cats  and  dogs.  But  one  may  with 
reason  draw  the  line  at  pigs,  horses,  goats,  turtles, 
rabbits,  chickens,  cows,  &c.  All  of  these  have" 
been  encountered  in  New  York's  tenement  houses. 
This  practice,  however  convenient  it  may  be,  is 
unwise  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view.  It  is  not 
good  for  the  animal  nor  is  it  good  for  the  people. 

119 


HOUSING    REFORM 

Other  uses  to  which  tenement  houses  are  often 
put  are  unwise  and  should  not  be  permitted. 
Especially  should  it  be  made  illegal  to  carry  on  a 
common  lodging  house  in  a  tenement  house. 
The  mingling  of  the  ordinary  lodging  house  patron 
with  the  tenement  house  dweller  is  not  a  good 
thing  for  the  community. 


120 


XI 

THE   ENFORCEMENT  OF  HOUSING  LAWS 


XI 
THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  HOUSING  LAWS 

THE  housing  problem  is  not  solved  when  a 
tenement  house  law  has  been  passed.    Such 
laws  are  not  self-operative.     Housing  evils 
will  not  vanish  of  their  own  accord.     The  causes 
which  have  led  to  them  are  too  deep-rooted  to 
permit  anything  so  simple.     In  formulating  hous- 
ing   legislation,    therefore,    one    must    consider 
whether   there   exists   administrative   machinery 
adequate  to  carry  it  out.     If  not,  new  machinery 
must  be  created. 

In  general  it  will  be  found  that  there  is  some 
branch  of  the  local  government  entrusted  with 
functions  and  duties  bearing  upon  the  proper 
housing  of  the  people.  In  the  larger  cities  there 
is  a  separate  department  of  buildings,  or  depart- 
ment of  public  safety  charged  with  responsibility 
for  the  inspection  of  new  buildings,  and  the  se- 
curity of  old  ones.  In  every  community  where 
there  are  any  housing  problems  it  is  safe  to  as- 
sume that  there  will  be  found  a  board  of  health, 
or  similar  body.  Between  these  two  bodies  is 
generally  divided  the  responsibility  for  housing 
administration.  Sometimes  these  branches  of  the 

123 


HOUSING    REFORM 

government  share  this  responsibility  with  others; 
often  with  the  police  department;  sometimes 
where  there  is  a  separate  fire  department,  with 
the  fire  department. 

It  will  invariably  be  found  that  such  division  of 
responsibility  is  unwise  and  leads  to  non-enforce- 
ment of  law.  In  some  cities  the  shifting  of  re- 
sponsibility from  one  branch  of  the  city  govern- 
ment to  another  has  become  a  fine  art.  It  is  so 
much  easier  for  a  negligent  clerk  to  advise  an 
uninformed  citizen  that  the  particular  matter  he 
complains  of  is  the  duty  of  some  other  depart- 
ment, than  it  is  to  set  the  machinery  of  his  own 
department  in  motion.  The  result  to  the  citizen 
is  unfortunate.  No  more  potent  discourager  of 
civic  enthusiasm  can  be  found  than  this  method 
of  passing  along  the  public-spirited  citizen  from 
one  department  to  another.  After  he  has  visited 
three  or  four  with  regard  to  the  same  matter  and 
finds  each  one  giving  him  conflicting  advice  as  to 
which  branch  of  the  city  government  is  really 
entrusted  with  the  functions  in  question,  he 
begins  to  lose  his  interest  in  the  matter  and  his 
desire  to  see  things  improved.  It  is  the  rare 
citizen  that  becomes  aroused  at  this  situation  and 
fired  with  a  desire  to  put  an  end  to  it. 

Wherever  it  is  possible  it  is  eminently  wise 
to  centre  responsibility  for  the  administration  of 
housing  laws.  This  principle,  however,  must  not 
lead  to  imposing  such  duties  upon  departments 
that  are  not  organized  to  carry  out  the  work. 

124 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

Nor  should  it  lead  to  the  formation  of  new  branches 
of  the  city  government,  with  all  their  intricate 
mechanism,  unless  the  conditions  are  so  serious 
as  to  warrant  such  a  step. 

In  most  cities  it  will  be  found  the  part  of  wisdom 
to  place  in  the  control  of  the  bureau  of  buildings 
or  similar  body,  the  responsibility  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  those  provisions  of  housing  laws  which 
deal  with  building  construction  and  protection 
in  case  of  fire: — such  matters  as  thickness  of  walls, 
materials  of  which  buildings  shall  be  constructed, 
fireproofing  questions,  the  construction  of  stairs 
and  of  fire-escapes  and  similar  matters.  These 
questions  relate  only  to  buildings  erected  in  the 
future.  Beyond  this  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bureau 
of  buildings  should  not  go. 

All  questions  of  a  sanitary  nature  including  light 
and  ventilation,  plumbing,  water  supply  and  simi- 
lar questions  should  be  left  to  the  health  depart- 
ment as  well  as  the  vast  work  of  regulating  the 
maintenance  of  buildings  of  this  kind.  These 
are  the  functions  which  a  health  department  may 
legitimately  perform. 

With  regard  to  regulating  the  maintenance  of 
such  houses,  there  will  probably  be  no  difference 
of  opinion  in  any  quarter.  It  will  generally  be 
found,  however,  that  local  building  interests  will 
prefer  vesting  in  the  department  of  buildings  juris- 
diction over  questions  affecting  light  and  venti- 
lation and  plumbing  construction  in  new  build- 
ings, urging  with  considerable  plausibility  that  all 

125 


HOUSING    REFORM 

matters  relating  to  new  buildings  should  be  lodged 
in  such  a  department,  leaving  to  the  health  de- 
partment the  care  and  maintenance  of  buildings 
after  they  are  once  erected. 

This  is  plausible  but  not  sound.  The  depart- 
ment which  regulates  use  must  control  the  details 
of  construction  which  affect  that  use.  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  conditions  gained  in  the  constant 
daily  dealing  with  the  problems  involved,  is 
a  prerequisite  to  the  application  of  the  necessary 
remedies. 

A  department  which  never  has  to  deal  with 
problems  of  light  and  ventilation  after  a  build- 
ing is  occupied,  whose  employees  never  become 
familiar  with  conditions  of  overcrowding,  bad 
ventilation,  lack  of  light,  abuses  of  plumbing, 
lack  of  repair,  conditions  of  dampness,  &c.,  is 
not  equipped  to  determine  what  standards  shall 
be  enforced  in  connection  with  the  construc- 
tion of  such  buildings.  One  illustration  suffices. 
The  conditions  of  light  in  a  building  immediately 
after  it  is  completed,  when  the  plaster  is  new  and 
white  and  there  are  no  curtains  or  hangings  at 
the  windows,  are  totally  different  from  what  they 
are  later.  This  was  excellently  illustrated  in 
New  York  not  many  years  ago,  when  the  Super- 
intendent of  Buildings,  under  examination  before  a 
legislative  Commission,  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  discredited  air-shaft — which  had  been  aptly 
termed  "A  culture  tube  on  a  gigantic  scale "- 
was  entirely  adequate  and  satisfactory  as  the  sole 

126 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

means  of  providing  light  and  ventilation  for  ten 
out  of  fourteen  rooms  on  every  floor  in  each  new 
tenement  house  that  was  being  erected,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  such  shafts  were  but  28 
inches  wide  and  60  feet  long,  60  to  70  feet  high, 
enclosed  on  all  four  sides,  and  without  any  intake 
of  air  at  the  bottom;  and  this  in  the  face  of  the 
universal  condemnation  of  this  particular  feature 
as  a  breeder  of  disease,  a  destroyer  of  morals  and 
a  menace  in  case  of  fire — an  opinion  shared  unani- 
mously by  health  officials,  fire  department  officials, 
the  general  public  and  the  tenement  house  dweller. 

Building  departments  are  generally  closely  al- 
lied to  building  interests.  In  nearly  every  city 
it  is  customary  to  put  a  builder  at  the  head  of 
such  department;  in  rare  cases  an  architect  is 
appointed.  In  any  event  it  will  be  found  that 
building  departments  are  invariably  sensitive  to 
building  interests  and  are  apt  to  consider  the 
questions  that  arise  in  connection  with  the  en- 
forcement of  housing  laws  more  from  the  point 
of  view  of  those  interests  than  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  welfare  of  the  future  occupants  and 
of  the  community. 

Health  departments,  on  the  other  hand,  are  not 
subject  to  such  influences.  They  are  generally 
presided  over  by  sanitarians.  Their  chief  object 
is  to  save  life,  to  prevent  disease  and  to  reduce  the 
death  rate.  They  are  not  likely  to  tolerate  in  new 
buildings  the  perpetuation  of  evils  which  in  a  few 
years  will  greatly  increase  their  own  burdens  and 

127 


HOUSING    REFORM 

render  difficult  the  carrying  out  of  their  chief 
functions. 

For  all  of  these  reasons,  therefore,  jurisdiction 
over  the  enforcement  of  provisions  affecting  light 
and  ventilation,  regulating  the  sizes  of  yards, 
courts  and  other  open  spaces;  the  size  of  rooms, 
the  methods  of  ventilation  of  halls,  stairs,  cellars 
and  water-closet  compartments;  the  installation 
of  sanitary  plumbing  and  modern  appliances,  is 
wisely  placed  in  the  hands  of  health  officers. 

In  New  York  City  the  main  functions  affecting 
tenement  houses,  normally  exercised  by  building 
and  health  departments,  have  been  placed  in  one 
centralized  department  of  the  city  government, 
known  as  the  Tenement  House  Department. 
This  has  been  made  necessary  by  reason  of  the 
extraordinary  conditions  which  there  exist,  to 
which  allusion  has  already  been  made  in  this  book. 
The  test  of  whether  it  is  necessary  to  establish  a 
separate  tenement  house  department  in  other 
cities  is  the  number  of  tenement  houses  and  the 
size  of  the  tenement  house  population.  In  gen- 
eral it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  city  needs  to  form 
a  separate  branch  of  the  city  government  for  this 
purpose,  unless  it  has  25,000  or  more  tenement 
houses. 

This  does  not  mean  that  it  may  not  often  be 
desirable  to  create  a  tenement  house  bureau  in 
the  board  of  health.  Where  there  is  a  consider- 
able number  of  tenement  houses,  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  work  relating  to  the  maintenance  of 

128 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

buildings  in  one  such  bureau  tends  to  greater 
efficiency  of  administration. 

Adequate  inspection  is  the  keynote  of  successful 
administration.  Without  knowledge  of  the  exact 
conditions  it  is  hopeless  to  attempt  to  apply  rem- 
edies. That  knowledge  can  not  be  gained  except 
by  inspection.  There  are  no  formulas  which  can 
be  applied  wholesale.  Each  house  must  be  treated 
on  its  own  merits.  Each  case  presents  its  own 
problem. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  achieving  adequate 
inspection  are  great.  In  the  first  place  one  must 
secure  competent  inspectors.  But,  alas,  they 
are  difficult  to  get  and  to  keep.  Frequently 
incompetent  inspectors  are  foisted  upon  the  com- 
munity for  political  reasons.  Even  at  the  best, 
one's  choice  is  limited  to  men  who  have  shown 
proficiency  in  a  civil  service  examination  but 
concerning  whose  judgment  and  general  ability 
the  appointing  officer  knows  nothing.  One  hesi- 
tates to  determine  which  is  the  worse  horn  of  the 
dilemma.  The  political  appointee  often  turns  out 
to  be  in  time  a  competent,  and  frequently  a 
practical  man.  The  civil  service  employee  fre- 
quently turns  out  to  be  neither.  Generally  both 
classes  of  employees  have  to  be  taught  their 
business  at  the  city's  expense.  Too  frequently, 
just  when  a  municipal  officer  has  succeeded  in 
bringing  his  employees  to  a  state  of  experience 
and  ability  where  they  are  of  real  service  to  the 
city,  he  is  compelled  to  lose  them  because  of  his 
9  129 


HOUSING    REFORM 

inability  to  fittingly  reward  their  increasingly 
valuable  services. 

One  way  to  secure  good  inspectors  is  to  appoint 
women.  This  of  course  presupposes  an  adminis- 
tration free  from  politics.  There  are  several  ad- 
vantages in  using  women  for  sanitary  inspection 
work.  In  the  first  place  for  the  salary  paid,  one 
can  generally  obtain  a  woman  of  higher  capacity. 
This  insures  a  greater  degree  of  intelligence  and 
skill,  a  greater  interest  in  the  work,  more  zeal, 
often  a  personal  desire  to  improve  conditions  and 
greater  loyalty  to  the  department.  With  women 
there  is  less  necessity  for  discipline  and  greater 
permanency  in  the  department's  staff. 

The  disadvantages  of  women  inspectors  are  their 
lack  of  practical  knowledge;  except  in  rare  in- 
stances, they  can  not  be  used  for  the  inspection 
of  new  buildings  or  for  structural  matters;  as 
a  rule  they  do  not  turn  out  quite  as  large  a  volume 
of  work  as  the  men,  though  it  is  generally  of  better 
quality.  On  the  whole  they  make  very  efficient 
sanitary  inspectors.  Every  health  department 
that  has  any  considerable  amount  of  sanitary 
inspection  to  do  should  have  several  women 
inspectors  on  its  staff. 

Adequate  inspection  is  essential,  but  it  is  not 
the  only  thing.  While  the  eyes  of  the  Department 
must  be  able  to  see  clearly  and  to  report  accurately 
what  they  see,  the  guiding  intelligence  must  so 
manage  and  conduct  its  affairs  as  to  bring  about 
a  fair  and  impartial  enforcement  of  the  law. 

130 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

There  must  be  unlimited  backbone,  a  readiness  to 
insist  upon  strict  enforcement  when  such  enforce- 
ment is  essential,  but  also  there  must  be  the 
discernment  that  will  recognize  the  necessity  at 
times  of  other  than  a  rigid  enforcement  of  the 
law — especially  in  relation  to  the  older  buildings — 
and  that  will  adapt  itself  to  varying  conditions. 

The  enforcement  of  housing  laws  with  regard 
to  new  buildings  presents  very  different  problems 
from  the  enforcement  of  similar  laws  in  connection 
with  the  maintenance  of  buildings.  The  main 
difference  is  in  the  speed  with  which  such  enforce- 
ment must  be  brought  about.  It  may  do  no 
serious  harm  to  permit  violations  in  the  older 
houses  to  drag  on  for  several  months.  Such  a 
course  of  procedure,  however,  in  new  buildings 
is  fatal.  During  the  delay,  the  building  is  com- 
pleted. It  will  do  little  good  to  the  future  occu- 
pants of  a  house  built  contrary  to  law  to  collect 
a  fine  from  the  owner.  The  number  of  fines 
collected  in  such  cases  is  not  an  evidence  of  the 
department's  efficiency,  but  an  indictment  of  its 
methods. 

To  illustrate:  If  the  law  requires  that  a  yard 
of  20  feet  in  depth  shall  be  left  at  the  rear  of  a  new 
building  and  the  builder  leaves  but  14  feet — thus 
decreasing  the  amount  of  light  and  air  available  for 
the  tenants — there  is  no  way  that  such  defect 
can  be  remedied  after  the  building  is  completed, 
short  of  tearing  down  the  entire  rear  wall  at  great 
expense  and  difficulty.  Similarly  if  the  law 

'3' 


HOUSING    REFORM 

requires  that  a  court  shall  be  12  feet  wide  and  the 
builder  builds  it  10  feet — thus  decreasing  the 
light  and  ventilation  of  the  rooms  opening  upon 
it — there  is  no  way  of  remedying  this  defect  after 
the  building  is  once  completed  without  practically 
destroying  the  building.  Judges  are  very  loath 
to  order  such  drastic  changes,  nor  should  it  be 
necessary. 

The  proper  method  is  to  see  to  it  that  such  facts 
are  discovered  while  the  building  is  being  erected, 
before  it  has  progressed  too  far  and  then  insist 
that  the  builder  shall  rectify  the  errors  before 
going  ahead  further  with  his  work.  The  best 
way  to  bring  this  about  is  by  a  method  which  has 
been  put  into  practice  in  the  New  York  Tenement 
House  Department.  When  such  defects  are  dis- 
covered builders  are  notified  to  remedy  them  im- 
mediately and  failing  this,  are  compelled  to  stop 
all  further  work  on  their  building.  At  first, 
because  of  the  old  lax  ways  which  had  been  in 
vogue,  they  did  not  believe  that  the  department 
was  in  earnest,  and  when  ordered  to  stop  building 
proceeded  with  all  the  more  haste  to  complete  the 
work.  When,  however,  they  found  several  police- 
men at  the  job  with  instructions  to  arrest  every- 
body that  touched  a  brick,  the  whole  situation 
assumed  a  new  aspect.  It  did  not  require  more 
than  two  or  three  such  occurrences  to  bring  it 
home  to  the  builders  of  that  city  that  the  day  had 
passed  when  they  could  with  impunity  defy  the 
law.  They  have  at  last  learned  their  lesson  and 

132 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

know  that  the  tenement  houses  that  they  now 
build  must  in  all  essential  particulars  comply 
with  the  law.  Where  a  department  finds  any 
difficulty  in  stopping  the  progress  of  such  work, 
it  should  be  given  the  right  to  invoke  the  aid  of 
the  courts  through  injunction  proceedings. 

Another  important  method  of  securing  the 
proper  construction  of  new  buildings  has  been  the 
plan  of  requiring  that  after  a  new  tenement  is 
completed  and  before  it  can  be  legally  occupied  a 
certificate  shall  be  issued  by  the  enforcing  author- 
ities to  the  effect  that  it  complies  in  all  respects 
with  the  law.  This  has  been  one  of  the  most 
important  provisions  of  the  New  York  law  and 
has  done  much  to  make  for  improved  housing 
conditions.  Under  its  operation  builders  have 
learned  that  there  is  little  advantage  in  attempting 
to  evade  the  law  because,  even  though  they  may 
succeed  for  a  while,  (often  through  the  connivance 
of  corrupt  inspectors)  in  utilizing  forbidden  meth- 
ods of  building  construction,  they  find  that  it 
in  no  way  benefits  them  in  the  end  because  they 
are  confronted  with  this  nightmare  of  a  final 
certificate,  with  a  knowledge  that  their  house  must 
be  finally  examined  by  a  different  inspector  and 
that  every  violation  of  law  which  can  be  seen 
(and  most  of  them  cannot  be  covered  up)  will 
then  be  disclosed  and  a  certificate  refused. 

Most  buildings,  too,  are  at  the  present  day  built 
on  borrowed  money  through  the  system  of  building 
loans,  and  the  men  who  lend  that  money  wisely 


HOUSING    REFORM 

refuse  to  make  their  final  payments  until  they  are 
assured  through  the  agency  of  the  department's 
final  certificate  that  the  building  in  question  is 
lawful.  In  the  old  days,  before  such  a  provision 
existed,  it  was  the  common  practice  to  run  up 
tenement  houses  contrary  to  law  and  fill  them  with 
tenants — sometimes  even  before  the  stairs  of  the 
building  were  completed. 

The  problems  involved  in  the  proper  main- 
tenance of  the  homes  of  the  poor  are  very  great. 
In  most  communities  little  effort  is  made  to  dis- 
cover housing  evils  or  other  sanitary  evils  upon 
the  initiative  of  the  sanitary  authorities.  As  a 
rule  they  are  quite  content — often  necessarily  so 
because  of  the  limited  funds  at  their  command — 
to  await  the  complaints  of  citizens,  believing  that 
if  there  are  serious  sanitary  evils  they  will  be  thus 
called  to  their  attention. 

This  is  a  slipshod,  antiquated  practice  and  can 
not  be  dignified  as  a  method  of  inspection.  It  is 
a  very  unfortunate  practice.  It  means  discrimi- 
nation. It  means  that  one  property  owner  whose 
house  is  in  a  fairly  good  condition  is  required  by 
the  health  officers  to  expend  money  and  do  con- 
siderable work  while  his  neighbor  in  the  next 
street  whose  house  is  in  a  far  worse  condition,  is 
not  bothered  from  year's  end  to  year's  end,  simply 
because  he  has  a  different  class  of  tenants  who 
have  not  cared  to  send  complaints  to  the  local 
authorities. 

1 1  also  means  neglect.    1 1  means  that  unsanitary 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

conditions,  often  far  worse  than  those  that  are 
complained  of  and  dealt  with  by  the  Department, 
remain  for  months  unknown  and  unchecked. 
Besides,  the  practice  of  sending  complaints  is 
fraught  with  danger  to  the  tenants  and  is  dis- 
couraged in  every  way  possible  by  the  landlord 
and  often  by  municipal  employees.  That  land- 
lords should  seek  to  discourage  such  complaints 
does  not  require  comment.  Many  adopt  the 
practice  of  evicting  those  tenants  who  send  com- 
plaints to  the  local  health  officers.  As  most 
tenants  hold  their  apartments  on  monthly  leases 
this  is  always  feasible  on  the  first  of  the  month. 
It  is  a  system  which  uniformly  accomplishes  the 
results  desired.  A  tenant  who  has  had  this  ex- 
perience once  or  twice  soon  loses  his  zest  for  civic 
reform. 

Clerks  and  other  employees  in  city  departments 
lend  their  aid  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  same 
end,  reasoning  that  the  more  they  can  discourage 
complaints  the  less  work  they  will  have  to  do. 
Moreover,  the  average  tenement  house  dweller 
does  not  understand  the  intricacies  of  the  processes 
which  must  be  employed  and  the  legal  delays 
involved  in  bringing  recalcitrant  owners  to  book. 
Finding  no  attention  paid  to  his  complaints  so  far 
as  he  can  see — not  realizing  that  it  often  takes 
months  for  the  department  to  bring  about  a  change 
in  the  conditions  complained  of — he  becomes  pessi- 
mistic and  ceases  to  send  complaints,  and  the 
belief  thus  comes  to  be  general  that  there  is  little 


HOUSING    REFORM 

use  of  taking  up  such  matters,  and  that  the  ordi- 
nary citizen  has  little  chance  of  having  his  com- 
plaints attended  to  unless  he  has  influence  behind 
him. 

There  should  be  substituted  for  inspection  on 
complaint,  periodic  sanitary  inspection  of  all 
houses  upon  the  initiative  of  the  enforcing  authori- 
ties, regularly  at  definite  times.  This  is  the  only 
method  of  sanitary  inspection  which  is  worthy 
the  name  of  a  system.  To  substitute  this  entirely 
for  inspection  on  complaint  should  be  the  aim  of 
every  sanitary  officer.  It  is  the  ideal  towards 
which  all  should  work,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  sanitary  officials 
may  be  able  to  disregard  entirely  the  numerous 
citizens'  complaints  that  come  to  them  and  trust 
completely  to  periodic  inspection  to  disclose  all 
evils  of  a  serious  nature. 

In  crowded  cities  where  there  is  a  vast  tenement 
house  population  the  ideal  is  to  have  such  in- 
spections made  once  a  month.  It  will  be  many 
years  before  that  ideal  is  reached.  The  practica- 
ble plan  in  most  cities  is  three  times  a  year;  and 
this,  with  such  re-inspections  as  would  necessarily 
be  made  to  ascertain  whether  orders  have  been 
carried  out,  should  suffice  in  most  communities. 
Uniformity  of  treatment  of  owners  is  thus  accom- 
plished. The  discovery  of  serious  sanitary  abuses 
is  no  longer  left  to  chance  nor  to  the  caprice  or  ill 
feeling  of  some  malicious  tenant. 

One  of  the  most  important  powers  to  be  exer- 
136 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

cised  by  any  health  board  is  the  right  to  vacate 
houses  that  are  unfit  for  human  habitation.  This 
is  very  different  from  the  right  to  condemn  or 
destroy  property.  It  is  a  perfectly  clear  proposi- 
tion that  if  a  house,  whether  it  be  a  tenement  or 
dwelling,  is  unfit  for  human  habitation  it  should 
not  be  occupied  by  human  beings.  And  it  should 
be  within  the  power  of  the  responsible  governing 
officers  to  accomplish  this.  There  should  be  no 
opportunity  in  such  extreme  cases  of  unending 
delays  and  long  drawn  out  contests  in  the  courts. 
Where  conditions  exist  that  are  perpetuating  ill- 
ness, creating  disease  and  death,  and  weakening 
the  social  and  moral  fibre  of  the  community,  it  is 
the  paramount  duty  of  the  community  to  put  an 
end  to  them  without  delay. 

And  yet  there  are  very  few  American  cities 
whose  health  officers  possess  this  important  power. 
New  York  has  possessed  it  for  many  years.  There 
both  the  health  commissioner  and — in  the  case  of 
tenement  houses — the  tenement  house  commis- 
sioner have  the  power  without  application  to  the 
courts,  when  a  building  is  unfit  for  human  habita- 
tion, after  a  notice  to  the  owner,  to  order  the  house 
to  be  vacated  within  a  short  period  of  time, 
generally  three  to  five  days.  Should  the  owner 
fail  to  comply  with  such  orders  the  departments 
in  question  then  have  the  right  to  send  their  own 
police  officers  to  the  buildings  and  forcibly  and 
bodily  eject  the  tenants.  This  is  done  practically 
every  week  in  the  year  in  the  City  of  New  York. 


HOUSING    REFORM 

In  the  year  1908  the  Tenement  House  Department 
of  that  city  vacated  76  houses  for  this  reason. 
Seldom  are  these  powers  contested  in  court. 

The  great  advantage  of  this  method  of  procedure 
is  that  people  immediately  cease  to  live  under 
improper  conditions.  It  also  spurs  the  landlord 
to  vigorous  action  in  seeking  to  meet  the  depart- 
ment's orders.  As  long  as  his  house  is  unoccupied 
he  is  losing  money,  as  no  rents  are  being  paid; 
and,  as  he  cannot  put  tenants  back  into  his  build- 
ing until  the  conditions  have  been  remedied,  he 
finds  it  advantageous  to  comply  speedily  with  the 
department's  requirements. 

Every  American  city  should  give  to  its  health 
officers  such  powers.  Being  extreme  powers  they 
should  be  exercised  only  in  extreme  cases. 

The  legal  equipment  of  the  department  is  a 
vital  adjunct  of  every  sanitary  officer.  In  many 
cities  the  weakness  of  this  is  a  serious  handicap  to 
housing  reform.  In  only  a  few  are  there  to  be 
found  special  counsel  assigned  to  boards  of  health 
for  this  purpose.  Generally  they  have  to  rely 
upon  the  city  attorney  or  corporation  counsel 
who  performs  similar  functions  for  all  the  other 
branches  of  the  city  government  and  who  neces- 
sarily, with  a  limited  staff,  can  give  only  a  small 
portion  of  his  time  and  attention  to  the  prosecution 
of  violations  of  the  health  laws. 

Wherever  there  are  many  tenement  houses  it 
will  be  found  advisable  for  the  health  department 
to  have  its  own  counsel  with  an  adequate  staff.  In 

138 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

the  last  analysis,  the  strength  of  the  department 
will  depend  very  largely  upon  the  strength  of  its 
legal  end.  Where  owners  refuse  to  comply  with 
the  law,  the  only  way  in  which  compliance  can  be 
brought  about  is  through  the  bringing  of  suits.  In 
some  cities  unwilling  owners  are  persuaded  to 
comply,  through  persistent  letter-writing  on  the 
part  of  the  health  officers.  The  disadvantage  of 
this  method  is  that  it  is  generally  slow.  Owners 
who  do  not  wish  to  maintain  their  houses  in  proper 
condition  soon  realize  that  such  letters  are  not 
of  serious  consequence  and  gradually  adopt  the 
practice  of  promising  to  comply  so  as  to  gain  time. 
By  this  means  it  is  often  possible  for  them  to 
protract  negotiations  several  months  before  the 
matter  is  taken  up  by  the  department's  attorney. 

Better  than  an  attorney  in  many  cases  is  an 
expert  photographer  on  the  department's  staff. 
This  idea  was  first  developed  in  the  administration 
of  the  Tenement  House  Department  in  New  York. 
Up  to  that  time  photographs  had  not  played  any 
considerable  part  in  the  administration  of  sanitary 
or  housing  laws.  One  good  photograph  may  often 
accomplish  as  much  as  a  lawsuit.  Nothing  will 
bring  an  owner  so  quickly  to  terms  as  the  sight 
of  a  series  of  photographs  of  the  conditions  in  his 
house. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  experiences  I  have 
ever  had  have  been  the  encounters  with  tene- 
ment house  owners  who  have  entered  my  office 
protesting  that  the  orders  issued  against  their 

'39 


HOUSING    REFORM 

property  were  without  basis,  insisting  that  the 
inspectors  of  the  department  must  be  very  incom- 
petent and  that  serious  injustice  had  been  done; 
vehemently  asserting  that  their  buildings  were 
always  kept  in  an  entirely  sanitary  condition  and 
that  the  conditions  complained  of  in  the  inspec- 
tors' reports  could  not  have  existed. 

After  listening  to  these  remarks  without  com- 
ment, there  was  always  considerable  pleasure  in. 
placing  before  their  astonished  eyes  five  or  six  pho- 
tographs showing  indescribably  bad  conditions  and 
saying  quietly  that  these  were  photographs  of  the 
conditions  that  existed  at  the  building  in  question. 
It  was  seldom  necessary  for  the  owner  to  take  a 
second  glance  at  the  pictures.  He  generally  at 
once  terminated  the  interview  with  the  statement 
that  he  had  no  idea  that  such  conditions  existed 
(which  in  some  cases  was  true)  and  left  the  office 
with  a  promise  to  remedy  them  immediately. 

The  great  advantage  of  the  photograph  is  not 
only  that  it  is  a  true  record  of  conditions  which 
exist  at  a  given  time,  but  that  the  owner  of  the 
house  knows  that  the  department  has  in  its  posses- 
sion evidence  which  if  taken  into  court  he  could 
not  successfully  refute.  It  is  only  in  rare  instances 
that  any  owner  attempts  to  contest  the  depart- 
ment's orders  in  the  face  of  such  evidence. 

Two  kinds  of  legal  process  are  available:  Civil 
and  criminal.  The  former  is  the  one  most  gener- 
ally used.  It  consists  chiefly  in  the  institution, 
in  minor  courts,  of  actions  for  small  penalties; 

140 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

in  similar  actions  in  branches  of  the  Supreme 
Court  for  larger  sums;  in  proceedings  for  the 
vacation  of  premises  unfit  for  human  habitation; 
in  suits  for  the  abatement  of  nuisances,  and  in 
injunction  proceedings  where  it  is  necessary  to 
prevent  owners  from  carrying  certain  plans  into 
effect  which  would  result  in  harm  to  the  com- 
munity. In  some  cases  also  in  proceedings  to 
compel  owners  to  carry  out  the  department's 
orders  and  for  the  collection  of  moneys  expended 
by  the  department  in  carrying  out  orders  which 
owners  have  refused  to  comply  with. 

In  very  few  cities  have  criminal  proceedings 
been  resorted  to,  although  in  many  the  department 
of  health  possesses  this  power;  in  most  places 
violations  of  health  laws  are  misdemeanors.  A 
greater  use  of  the  criminal  remedies  would  un- 
doubtedly result  in  a  prompter  compliance  with 
the  law  in  most  cases.  Few  owners  mind  very 
much  being  sued  in  a  minor  court  for  a  penalty 
of  $25  or  $50,  but  most  owners  seriously  object 
to  being  arrested,  put  in  jail,  admitted  to  bail 
and  tried  by  criminal  process.  Of  course  this 
should  be  resorted  to  only  in  serious  cases.  It 
is  a  power  which  it  is  dangerous  to  abuse. 

Health  departments  should  also  have  the  power 
where  an  owner  has  refused  or  neglected  for  some 
time  to  carry  out  important  orders,  to  step  in 
themselves,  if  need  be,  and  do  the  work  at  the 
city's  expense,  with  the  right  to  impose  this  cost 
as  a  lien  upon  the  property.  From  very  early 

141 


HOUSING    REFORM 

days  such  a  power  has  been  enjoyed  by  the  health 
officials  of  New  York.  In  recent  years  they  have 
not  had  to  exercise  it  frequently. 

If  such  powers  are  given,  care  should  be  taken 
to  provide  at  the  same  time  for  a  fund  out  of 
which  such  expenses  can  be  defrayed,  otherwise 
the  department  will  be  effectually  stopped  from  ac- 
complishing much  in  this  direction.  Allusion  has 
already  been  made  in  this  chapter  to  the  impor- 
tance of  giving  to  health  departments  the  right  to 
vacate  houses  that  are  unfit  for  human  habitation. 
This  power  should  be  extended  to  cases  where 
houses  are  without  fire-escapes  and  human  life  is 
endangered  thereby. 

An  important  adjunct  to  the  legal  powers  of 
the  department  is  the  right  to  file  a  Us  pendens 
(notice  of  suit  pending)  in  the  case  of  violations  of 
housing,  health  and  building  laws  where  the  owners 
have  failed  to  comply  with  reasonable  diligence, 
and  the  enforcing  authorities  contemplate  bring- 
ing an  action.  This  course  of  procedure  is  very 
effective  as  it  serves  notice  to  real  estate  inter- 
ests and  lawyers  that  there  is  something  the  mat- 
ter with  the  house  and  prevents  an  owner  from 
unloading  the  property  upon  some  innocent  pur- 
chaser who  has  not  suspected  that  there  may 
be  violations  pending,  the  removal  of  which  will 
require  the  expenditure  of  considerable  money. 
All  penalties  incurred  through  violation  of  housing 
laws  should  be  made  liens  upon  the  property. 

There  is  little  value  in  any  of  these  powers  or 
142 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

in  housing  laws  themselves  if  there  is  not  a  well 
developed  public  sentiment  in  each  community 
to  sustain  them.  A  particularly  disheartening 
experience  is,  after  weeks  of  preparation  of  a  suit 
and  possibly  after  months  of  effort  by  the  local 
officials  to  secure  the  remedy  of  some  abuse,  to 
have  finally  the  whole  matter  summarily  dis- 
missed by  some  minor  judge  when  the  case  is 
taken  into  court,  with  a  refusal  on  his  part  to 
hold  the  owner  or  to  impose  upon  him  the  proper 
penalty,  notwithstanding  the  trouble  and  expense 
to  which  the  community  has  been  put  and  the 
evils  which  the  unfortunate  tenants  have  had  to 
suffer  for  a  long  period  of  time.  This  is  too  fre- 
quently the  case. 

There  is  often  an  entire  lack  of  appreciation  on 
the  part  of  the  judges  in  minor  courts  of  the  im- 
portance of  housing  laws  and  the  necessity  of  their 
supporting  public  officials  in  their  work.  So  great 
a  drawback  has  this  become  in  one  eastern  city 
that  the  authorities  have  finally  been  compelled  to 
a  very  large  extent  to  withdraw  their  suits  from 
these  courts  and  bring  proceedings  in  branches  of 
the  Supreme  Court  itself. 

The  time  is  probably  soon  coming  when  we 
shall  establish  in  most  of  our  cities  special  courts 
in  which  all  suits  brought  on  the  part  of  the  mu- 
nicipality or  the  state  will  be  prosecuted — that  is, 
a  true  municipal  court:  a  place  where  actions 
affecting  the  municipality  solely  may  be  tried. 
Such  a  plan  would  possess  great  advantages.  It 

'43 


HOUSING    REFORM 

would  mean  that  the  judges  of  such  courts  would 
thus  become  familiar  with  the  intricacies  of  laws 
that  are  often  highly  technical  and  complicated, 
and  would  through  the  constant  determination  of 
such  issues  be  able  to  enforce  standards  that  would 
raise  the  entire  tone  of  the  municipal  adminis- 
tration. 

Another  practice  which  renders  difficult  the 
enforcement  of  health  laws  is  the  failure  on  the 
part  of  the  prosecuting  officers  to  collect  penalties 
when  once  imposed.  All  the  various  steps  may 
have  been  taken,  weeks  have  been  consumed  in 
the  preparation  of  a  case,  issue  has  been  joined, 
decision  rendered  in  favor  of  the  municipality,  a 
penalty  imposed  upon  the  offending  owner  and 
then  the  attorney  for  the  city  makes  no  effort  to 
collect  the  penalty. 

The  effect  of  this  policy  has  been  reflected  in 
the  attitude  of  the  courts,  voiced  in  the  sentiment 
frequently  expressed  by  many  of  the  judges  that  it 
is  not  their  function  to  serve  as  collectors  of  reve- 
nue for  the  city — meaning  that  they  will  not  im- 
pose penalties  where  owners  have  promised  to 
comply,  even  though  that  promise  has  only  been 
wrung  out  of  them  in  court  after  many  months' 
delay.  Such  an  attitude  seriously  hampers  proper 
enforcement. 

The  centering  in  one  department  of  responsi- 
bility for  the  enforcement  of  specific  provisions 
of  law  is  no  more  important  than  the  centering 
upon  the  owner  of  the  responsibility  for  all  un- 

144 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF    HOUSING    LAWS 

sanitary  or  dangerous  conditions.  To  the  ordi- 
nary person  it  seems  perhaps  fair  that  tenants 
and  lessees  should  share  with  owners  the  respon- 
sibility for  unsanitary  conditions. 

Such  a  scheme,  however,  is  impossible  from  an 
administrative  point  of  view,  especially  where  the 
chief  method  of  enforcement  is  by  means  of  civil 
proceedings.  If  you  are  going  to  sue  a  man  he 
must  have  some  property  upon  which  you  can 
levy  in  the  event  of  your  securing  a  judgment. 
Imagine  the  unprofitableness  of  the  city's  spend- 
ing time  and  money  in  suing  some  irresponsible 
tenant  from  whom  a  judgment  could  not  be  col- 
lected. The  owner  is  really  the  responsible  per- 
son. It  is  his  business  and  duty  to  see  that  his 
house  is  kept  in  proper  condition. 

This  is  a  question  which  has  given  great  concern 
to  tenement  house  owners.  They  have  always 
pointed  to  the  fact  that  the  owner  is  made  respon- 
sible for  all  violations  of  law  as  a  great  injustice, 
and  have  with  apparent  reason  inquired  why 
penalties  have  not  been  imposed  equally  upon 
tenants.  Of  course,  there  are  cases  where  the 
apartments  of  individual  tenants  are  kept  in  a 
filthy  condition  and  the  property  is  shamefully 
abused.  If  a  landlord  has  taken  in  tenants  who 
abuse  his  house  and  refuse  to  comply  with  the 
laws  of  health,  it  is  an  entirely  easy  matter  to 
turn  them  out. 

In  the  great  majority  of  cases,  however,  the  ten- 
ants are  law-abiding  people  who  keep  their  apart- 

10  I45 


HOUSING    REFORM 

ments  in  excellent  condition.  It  is  the  public 
parts  of  the  tenement  house  that  are  generally  in 
trouble.  Over  these  the  owner  is  the  only  person 
who  has  control.  The  task  of  a  city  department 
which  had  to  hold  twenty  different  families  respon- 
sible for  the  cleanliness  of  a  public  hallway  or  the 
repair  of  a  public  water-closet,  would  indeed  be  an 
impossible  one.  In  the  long  run  it  will  be  found 
that  no  hardship  is  worked  upon  owners  by  hold- 
ing them  to  strict  accountability  for  the  care  of 
their  premises. 

The  only  instance  with  which  I  am  familiar 
where  housing  laws  do  seek  to  place  penalties 
upon  tenants  is  in  regard  to  the  placing  of  en- 
cumbrances on  fire-escape  balconies.  In  this 
case  the  tenant  is  made  liable  to  a  fine  of  $10  for 
each  offense  and  also  liable  to  arrest.  Even  this 
provision,  designed  for  the  protection  of  the 
tenants  themselves,  does  not  work  well.  Few 
judges  are  willing  to  make  criminals  of  ignorant 
foreigners,  who,  unfamiliar  with  our  customs  and 
laws,  have  placed  some  household  utensil  or  put 
their  bedding  to  air  upon  the  fire-escape  balconies. 

Essential  to  the  efficient  administration  of  a 
housing  law  is  the  registration  of  the  name  and 
address  of  tenement  owners.  A  plan  originally 
tried  in  New  York  some  years  ago  was  to  require 
the  name  and  address  of  the  owner  of  the  tenement 
house  to  be  posted  in  a  conspicuous  place  in  the 
public  hallway.  This  was  not  a  success. 

The  plan  at  present  in  vogue  is  the  requirement 
146 


THE    ENFORCEMENT   OF   HOUSING   LAWS 

that  every  owner  shall  register  his  name  and  ad- 
dress in  the  Tenement  House  Department,  with  the 
further  provision  that  if  he  fails  to  do  so,  service  of 
all  legal  papers  shall  be  deemed  adequate  by  merely 
nailing  copies  of 'such  papers  upon  the  door  of 
the  building.  Without  such  information  sanitary 
abuses  of  a  serious  nature  are  often  permitted  to 
exist  for  long  periods  because  of  the  inability  of  the 
authorities  to  place  responsibility. 

Co-operation  is  an  important  element  in  housing 
reform.  To  get  the  best  results  there  should  be 
the  fullest  co-operation  between  the  city  depart- 
ments themselves  and  with  civic  bodies  and  private 
citizens  interested  in  the  improvement  of  living 
conditions. 

Politics  should  of  course  be  kept  out  of  city 
departments  charged  with  the  enforcement  of 
sanitary  laws.  No  matter  what  one  may  believe 
with  regard  to  other  branches  of  the  city  govern- 
ment, there  is  generally  a  well  crystallized  senti- 
ment that  the  department  of  health  should  not 
be  made  the  sport  of  politicians.  This  is  a  propo- 
sition about  which  there  can  be  no  question. 
Fortunately  politicians  are  gradually  learning  that 
there  is  nothing  more  dangerous  to  tamper  with 
than  the  health  of  the  people  and  increasingly 
each  year  health  departments  are  being  freed  from 
these  influences. 

Where  politics  does  enter  into  the  administra- 
tion of  housing  laws,  there  is  considerable  that 
can  be  accomplished  even  through  the  politician. 
He  can  be  made  to  see  that  the  enforcement  of 

'47 


HOUSING    REFORM 

laws  in  the  interest  of  the  poorer  members  of  the 
community  is  a  political  asset  and  that  there  is 
more  to  be  gained  politically  by  taking  this  side 
of  the  question  than  in  urging  the  suspension  of 
special  requirements  in  the  interest  of  individual 
constituents. 

The  average  politician,  seeking  favors  from  the 
head  of  a  city  department,  cares  very  little 
whether  the  municipal  officer  grants  his  request 
and  he  secures  the  extension  of  time  or  modifi- 
cation of  some  order  that  may  be  desired.  All 
that  he  generally  wants  is  to  show  the  member 
of  his  district  who  has  come  to  him  for  help,  that 
his  request  has  been  heeded  and  that  the  enforcing 
authorities  have  done  what  they  could  to  do  him 
a  favor.  This  may  be  tactfully  accomplished 
without  in  any  way  sacrificing  the  welfare  of  the 
community.  Like  everything  else,  it  depends 
very  much  on  the  way  in  which  it  is  done. 

Efficient  housing  administration  to  be  successful 
must  be  sane.  There  must  be  a  sense  of  propor- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  head  of  the  department. 
He  must  not  give  his  attention  unduly  to  matters 
of  minor  moment,  especially  when  large  questions 
and  serious  evils  are  put  aside.  He  must  not  too 
rigidly  adhere  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  law  nor 
feel  that  he  can  never  deviate  from  it  in  the  slight- 
est respect.  On  the  other  hand  there  must  not 
be  so  liberal  an  interpretation  as  to  nullify  its 
intent.  In  general,  sanitary  officers  should  attack 
the  worst  evils  first  and  so  proceed  as  to  bring 
about  a  uniform  treatment  of  citizens. 

148 


XII 

HOW  TO  SECURE  LEGISLATIVE  REFORMS 


XII 

HOW  TO  SECURE  LEGISLATIVE  REFORMS 

HOUSING  reformers  are  often  in  doubt 
whether  it  is  better  to  seek  state  legislation 
or  to  attempt  to  remedy  conditions  through 
municipal  ordinance.  The  latter  is  easier,  but  is 
less  likely  to  give  satisfactory  results.  The  chief 
advantage  of  state  legislation  is  its  greater  degree 
of  permanency.  In  many  states  the  legislature 
meets  but  once  in  two  years.  Moreover,  it 
generally  takes  two  or  three  months  to  get  im- 
portant legislation  passed.  The  result  is  that 
when  you  have  once  obtained  your  law  you  have, 
to  a  large  extent,  ensured  its  stability.  The  law 
once  obtained  cannot  be  repealed  or  amended  in 
important  particulars  without  the  public  knowing 
it;  nor  can  it  be  done  quickly.  One  has,  there- 
fore, ample  time  to  muster  his  forces  to  repel 
attacks  that  may  be  made. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  enact  a  municipal 
ordinance  it  is  subject  to  constant  change.  Few 
communities  pay  close  attention  to  the  work  of 
their  Common  Council,  and  matters  slip  through 
easily.  Local  boards  are  generally  in  session 
throughout  the  year.  Almost  any  week  they  can 


HOUSING    REFORM 

put  through  a  radical  amendment  to  a  housing 
ordinance  before  its  friends  have  time  to  rally  to 
its  defense. 

It  will  be  found,  too,  that  the  aldermen  are 
much  more  susceptible  to  local  influences.  Some 
builder  will  find  a  provision  of  the  housing  ordi- 
nance in  his  way  when  he  wants  to  build  a  flat 
or  apartment  house,  and  will  get  his  alderman 
to  introduce  an  amendment  making  an  exception 
in  the  case  of  his  building  or  even  changing 
altogether  the  particular  provision.  It  is  difficult 
to  combat  successfully  amendments  of  this  kind 
in  the  short  time  at  one's  disposal,  even  if  aware 
of  them,  and  gradually  the  ordinance  is  broken 
down  in  its  essential  provisions  and  becomes  of 
little  force  and  effect. 

This  is  less  likely  to  happen  in  state  legislation. 
The  members  of  the  legislature  are  not  so  sensi- 
tive to  local  influence.  Only  a  few  of  them  come 
from  a  particular  city.  The  others  freed  from 
local  pressure  are  apt  to  consider  the  proposal  to 
weaken  a  beneficent  law  of  this  kind,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  general  welfare  of  the  state,  and  the 
member  desiring  such  changes  will  find  himself 
unable  to  accomplish  them. 

There  is  also  some  doubt  as  to  the  power  of  local 
municipal  bodies,  such  as  boards  of  aldermen,  to 
prescribe  legal  remedies  for  the  violation  of  housing 
ordinances  that  will  be  sufficiently  strong.  In 
addition  there  is  always  the  question  of  conflict 
between  a  local  ordinance  and  laws  that  may  be 

152 


HOW   TO   SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

enacted  at  some  future  time  by  the  state  legisla- 
ture. In  such  cases  the  state  law  will  always  have 
the  greater  force  and  effect,  and  it  is  therefore 
the  part  of  wisdom  to  start  upon  this  basis. 

For  all  of  these  reasons  it  is  wiser  to  seek  the 
remedy  for  housing  conditions  through  legislative 
enactment  rather  than  through  municipal  ordi- 
nance. 

Usually  the  first  efforts  at  securing  legislation 
for  housing  reform  fail.  The  community  where 
this  experience  is  not  repeated  year  after  year  is 
fortunate.  The  reasons  for  the  failures  are  not 
far  to  seek.  The  persons  interested  in  such 
movements  are,  as  a  rule,  unfamiliar  with  the 
factors  which  enter  into  success  in  this  field  or  are 
unwilling  to  address  themselves  in  a  practical 
way  to  the  problems  which  have  to  be  met. 

In  the  first  place  public  sentiment  is  an  essen- 
tial factor.  We  talk  very  glibly  of  methods  of 
government  in  this  country  and  of  our  governing 
officials,  whereas  we  all  know  or  should  know  that 
the  real  governing  force  is  the  force  of  public 
sentiment.  Public  sentiment  is  a  vague  and  illu- 
sive thing,  working  often  in  inscrutable  ways. 
Fortunately  it  is  nearly  always  on  the  side  of 
movements  for  the  improvement  of  social  con- 
ditions, notably  for  housing  reform.  The  effort 
to  direct  it  into  proper  channels  should  not  be 
difficult,  if  undertaken  with  a  knowledge  of  what 
is  requisite  and  with  a  definite  end  in  view. 

The  most  potent  factor  in  this  situation  is  the 
'53 


HOUSING    REFORM 

press.  It  is  useless  to  attempt  a  legislative  cam- 
paign of  any  importance  until  the  support  of  the 
press  has  been  obtained.  To  get  this,  let  the  man- 
aging editors  and  others  responsible  for  the  for- 
mulation of  a  newspaper's  policy  understand  the 
conditions  which  exist  and  let  them  see  them  at 
first  hand.  The  knowledge  thus  gained  will  be 
found  to  be  of  lasting  value. 

Editors  are,  as  a  rule,  very  practical  men. 
They  must  be  assured  that  the  movement  which 
you  advocate  is  on  a  sound  basis  and  in  the  hands 
of  practical  people.  Be  assured  that  the  argu- 
ments you  advance  will  be  offset  at  various  times 
in  all  manner  of  ways  and  through  all  sorts  of 
channels  by  counter  arguments  to  the  effect  that 
your  plans  are  "visionary"  and  "theoretical,"  and 
will  not  benefit  the  people  whom  you  seek  to 
benefit,  but  on  the  contrary  may  work  irreparable 
hardship  to  property  interests  that  are  affected 
thereby. 

These  are  arguments  that  are  sure  to  be  ad- 
vanced and  arguments  that  the  housing  reformer 
must  be  able  to  meet  and  satisfactorily  dispose  of. 
No  attempt  to  secure  housing  legislation  should 
be  made  until  the  community  has  been  informed 
with  regard  to  the  conditions  which  prevail  and  a 
strong  public  sentiment  for  their  abolition  de- 
veloped. 

In  what  other  ways  can  public  sentiment  be 
developed  besides  through  the  press?  The  method 
that  generally  produces  the  largest  and  quickest 


HOW   TO    SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

returns  is  through  circularization  in  various  forms, 
through  writing  letters  from  time  to  time  to 
prominent  citizens  calling  their  attention  to  evils 
which  exist  in  the  community,  and  always  direct- 
ing the  letter  to  some  specific  question  concerning 
which  you  desire  to  awaken  their  interest  and  to 
secure  their  support.  The  indefinite  letter  is  of 
little  value — in  fact,  is  likely  to  weaken  your  influ- 
ence and  injure  your  cause. 

Popular  lectures,  if  given  by  interesting  speak- 
ers, also  play  an  important  part  in  the  education 
of  the  community  and  the  development  of  public 
sentiment.  Lantern  slides  showing  the  actual 
conditions  that  exist  are  a  potent  aid  in  this  work. 
The  distribution  of  photographic  reproductions  of 
some  of  the  worst  evils,  as  well  as  typical  instances 
of  conditions  that  your  investigation  has  disclosed, 
attaching  to  them  always  a  human  interest  where 
possible,  is  always  effective  in  reaching  people's 
sympathies  and  securing  their  support,  because  it 
enables  them  to  picture  actual  conditions.  This 
is  important,  as  many  people  lack  imagination. 
One  good  photograph  is  worth  six  pages  of  print, 
but  it  must  tell  the  story  and  you  must  be  sure 
that  it  tells  the  story. 

Enlisting  the  labor  men  in  the  cause,  where  the 
labor  movement  is  strong  and  progressive,  is 
nearly  always  helpful.  Housing  reform  is  a 
matter  that  vitally  concerns  them.  They  who 
have  been  engaged  for  generations  in  the  fight 
for  better  working  conditions  for  themselves  are 

'55 


HOUSING    REFORM 

quick  to  rally  in  support  of  an  appeal  for  better 
living  conditions  for  their  wives  and  families. 
It  inspires  confidence  in  their  own  cause  for  them 
to  enlist  in  a  disinterested  campaign,  and  their 
leaders  are  quick  to  see  the  advantage  of  such  co- 
operation. The  labor  men,  moreover,  bring  great 
strength  to  any  movement  for  housing  reform 
because  of  the  attention  which  legislators  give  to 
the  demands  of  labor. 

The  most  direct  and  natural  source  of  appeal  is 
to  the  members  of  boards  of  charitable  societies 
and  to  citizens  interested  in  other  forms  of  social 
work.  Their  connection  with  such  work  indicates 
an  interest  in  the  cause — an  interest  which,  as  a 
rule,  needs  only  to  be  developed  and  directed. 
Women's  clubs,  civic  organizations,  settlements 
and  kindred  bodies  may  be  made  potent  allies. 
Do  not,  however,  surrender  the  leadership  of 
your  cause  into  their  hands. 

In  general,  one's  task  is  not  so  much  to  create 
public  sentiment  as  to  direct  it:  to  fully  inform 
the  public  as  to  the  conditions,  to  formulate  the 
remedies  and  present  them  for  public  judgment 
and  approval,  and  to  direct  the  great  force  of 
public  sentiment  towards  securing  the  reforms 
that  are  urgently  needed. 

It  is  a  common  experience  for  a  community  to 
be  aroused  to  housing  evils,  to  have  had  a  care- 
fully selected  citizens'  committee  at  work  making 
careful  investigations  and  studies  of  the  problem 
for  a  year  or  two,  to  have  prepared  a  housing  law 

156 


HOW   TO    SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

after  the  most  careful  and  mature  deliberation 
extending  over  many  months,  and  then  to  utterly 
fail  to  secure  the  enactment  of  its  measures  by  the 
legislature.  It  is  a  disheartening  experience  and 
it  frequently  acts  as  a  check  to  housing  progress. 
What  is  the  reason  for  it?  The  chief  reason  lies 
in  the  fact  that  legislative  success  requires  special 
abilities. 

The  ordinary  citizen  would  never  for  a  moment 
dream  of  conducting  a  complicated  lawsuit  if  not 
a  lawyer;  nor  would  he  feel  confidence  in  his 
ability  to  perform  some  delicate  surgical  opera- 
tion if  not  a  surgeon.  Getting  an  important  bill 
through  a  legislature  in  the  face  of  great  opposi- 
tion is  quite  as  difficult  a  task  and  requires  special 
knowledge;  yet  frequently  the  ordinary  citizen 
undertakes  this  task  with  cheerful  confidence  and, 
as  a  rule,  without  the  slightest  appreciation  of 
what  he  is  about  to  experience.  From  an  educa- 
tional point  of  view  it  is  perhaps  advantageous 
that  he  should  adopt  this  course,  but  its  effect 
on  the  cause  of  housing  reform  is  uniformly 
unfortunate. 

It  is  only  in  rare  cases  that  the  ordinary  citi- 
zen is  keen  enough  to  grasp  quickly  the  essential 
principles  of  the  game  and  adapt  himself  to  them. 
He  comes  to  the  experiment  totally  unprepared 
for  his  task,  handicapped  as  a  rule  by  text-book 
views  of  government,  not  realizing  that,  as  a  rule, 
the  actual  methods  are  as  different  from  the 
theoretical  ones  as  day  from  night.  It  is  difficult 

157 


HOUSING    REFORM 

for  the  average  man  to  adjust  himself  to  this 
situation  with  sufficient  readiness.  It  is  incred- 
ible to  him  that  the  views  which  he  has  enter- 
tained for  so  long  a  time  should  be  erroneous. 
How  can  it  be?  He  has  heard  little  from  others 
indicating  that  the  real  methods  of  government 
are  so  different  from  the  ones  commonly  accepted 
as  prevailing.  In  the  legislative  experience  he 
learns  for  the  first  time  that  a  good  cause  may  be 
a  handicap;  that  it  is  often  easier  to  pass  a  bill 
which  works  injury  to  the  community  than  one 
which  improves  conditions;  that  the  bill  which 
benefits  everybody  is  far  more  difficult  to  pass 
than  the  bill  which  benefits  a  single  individual  or 
corporation. 

He  also  has  radically  to  readjust  his  ideas  in 
other  directions.  In  most  legislatures  he  is  bound 
to  find  that  the  real  determination  of  what  bills 
shall  pass  and  what  bills  shall  fail  often  rests 
with  some  single  individual — the  political  boss, 
a  man  responsible  to  no  one,  holding  no  office  and 
yet  shaping  and  controlling  the  destinies  of  the 
state.  Sometimes  he  will  find  a  group  of  bosses 
rather  than  a  single  one.  At  first  the  ordinary 
good  citizen  will  be  horrified  at  such  conditions. 
It  is  so  violent  a  contrast  to  all  that  he  had 
learned  in  earlier  years  as  to  methods  of  govern- 
ment, so  violent  a  shock  to  his  ideals. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  housing  reform,  how- 
ever, such  conditions  are  often  a  distinct  help 
rather  than  a  hindrance.  The  boss  is  always 

158 


HOW   TO    SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

amenable  to  public  sentiment,  and  the  advantage 
which  corporations  and  special  interests  find  in  the 
boss  system  may  without  reproach  be  turned  to 
account  by  the  reformer.  The  great  advantage  is 
that  it  is  much  easier  to  convince  one  man  with 
regard  to  so  highly  technical  a  subject  as  housing 
legislation  than  it  is  to  convince  two  hundred- 
two  hundred  of  all  degrees  of  intelligence  and 
integrity. 

Of  course  there  is  another  side  to  it.  It  is  easier 
also  for  those  interests  which  may  be  opposed  to 
housing  reform  to  influence  the  boss  than  it  is  for 
them  to  influence  two  hundred  members  of  the 
legislature.  But  admitting  all  of  this,  the  fact 
still  remains  that  the  existing  political  conditions, 
much  as  they  are  to  be  regretted  from  many  points 
of  view,  lend  themselves  most  advantageously  to 
the  securing  of  progressive  legislation,  not  only  in 
the  field  of  housing  reform  but  in  other  fields  of 
social  effort. 

The  trouble  with  many  social  reformers  has 
been  that  they  have  not  been  willing  to  take 
advantage  of  the  situation  as  they  find  it,  and 
direct  this  force  into  useful  channels,  but  have 
held  aloof  and  refused  to  face  conditions  as  they 
are. 

If  you  are  trying  to  get  housing  legislation 
through  a  legislature  which  is  controlled  by  a  boss, 
what  a  futile  waste  of  time  it  is  to  seek  out  the  one 
hundred  or  two  hundred  members  of  that  body 
and  go  through  the  empty  formality  of  attempting 


HOUSING    REFORM 

to  secure  the  individual  support  of  each  one  of 
those  men  as  if  he  really  controlled  the  destinies 
of  the  cause  in  which  you  are  interested.  The 
influence  that  you  want  is  the  influence  which 
can  affect  your  cause  favorably.  If  you  live  in  a 
boss-ridden  state  it  is  just  as  futile  to  ask  the 
support  of  individual  members  of  the  legislature 
in  that  state  as  to  ask  the  aid  of  the  Mikado  of 
Japan.  Without  the  support  of  the  boss  all  other 
support  is  of  little  value. 

The  mistake  that  is  too  often  made  is  in  assum- 
ing that  the  boss,  because  he  has  an  unsavory 
reputation  politically,  has  ceased  to  be  a  human 
being — in  assuming  that  he  is  the  enemy  of  all 
good  things  and  that  you  can  not  count  upon  his 
help  in  the  particular  reforms  in  which  you  are 
interested.  The  direct  opposite  is  generally  the 
case.  The  political  leader  is  very  keen  to  welcome 
opportunities  of  playing  a  helpful  part  in  progres- 
sive social  movements,  especially  in  a  cause  which 
does  not  affect  his  personal  interests  and  which, 
as  a  rule,  will  be  a  source  of  political  capital  and 
incidentally  secure  for  him  the  commendation  of 
public-spirited  citizens.  He  always  has  his  ear 
to  the  ground.  But  he  is  human  also  in  this — 
if  he  has  the  power,  he  wants  to  be  consulted. 
And  it  is  generally  better  to  consult  people  in 
advance  than  afterward. 

Boss-ridden  or  not  boss-ridden,  the  secret  of 
legislative  success  may  be  summed  up  as  the  right 
pressure,  in  the  right  place,  at  the  right  time,  in 

160 


HOW  TO   SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

the  right  way,  by  the  right  person.  No  one  of 
these  things  can  be  omitted. 

It  must  be  the  right  pressure.  If  you  want  to 
influence  a  member  from  a  certain  county  there 
is  little  use  in  asking  people  who  live  in  a  totally 
different  county  and  who  are  not  his  constituents 
to  use  their  influence  with  him.  But  there  is 
every  use  in  letting  him  understand  the  sentiment 
of  the  people  in  his  own  district.  That  is  the  right 
pressure. 

The  pressure  to  be  effective  must  also  be  in  the 
right  place:  All  legislatures  do  their  work  by 
committee  system.  In  practically  all  of  them, 
bills  when  introduced  are  uniformly  referred  to 
committees  for  consideration  and  for  the  hearing 
of  the  arguments  for  and  against  each  measure. 
When  a  bill  is  in  committee  and  having  the  con- 
sideration of  the  ten  or  fifteen  members  who  may 
constitute  that  committee,  there  is  little  use  in 
bringing  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  general  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  who  are  not  members  of 
that  committee.  They  will  give  little  or  no  atten- 
tion to  any  matter  until  it  comes  before  them  on 
the  floor  of  the  house  after  having  been  considered 
by  committee  and  reported  favorably  or  unfavor- 
ably from  them;  but  pressure  brought  upon  the 
members  of  that  particular  committee  by  which 
your  bill  is  being  considered  is  of  the  very  greatest 
value.  That  is  pressure  in  the  right  place. 

It  must  also  be  at  the  right  time.  If  you  are 
anxious  to  have  your  bill  reported  out  of  committee 
ii  161 


HOUSING    REFORM 

and  your  committee  holds  its  meetings  on  Friday, 
it  is  not  advantageous  to  personally  interview  the 
members  of  that  committee  on  Monday  and  urge 
them  to  vote  in  favor  of  your  measure. 

If  a  bill  has  been  reported  by  a  committee  and 
is  up  for  consideration  in  one  house  there  is  little 
use  in  seeking  to  influence  the  members  of  the 
other  house  which  is  not  then  considering  the 
measure  in  question  and  which  can  not,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  consider  it  until  some  time  later. 
The  pressure  must  be  at  the  right  time. 

It  also  must  be  in  the  right  way.  Probably  the 
most  futile  thing  that  the  average  citizen  does 
and  the  method  which  he  instinctively  adopts  is 
to  get  up  a  petition  of  thousands  of  names  in  favor 
of  his  measure  and  send  it  to  the  legislature.  This 
is  a  relic  of  a  pre-glacial  political  period.  Such 
methods  never  influence  legislators;  they  know 
how  easy  it  is  to  get  signatures  to  petitions  and 
how  the  American  people  are  prone  to  sign  un- 
thinkingly almost  any  statement  that  is  put  before 
them.  They  are  quite  right  to  pay  no  attention 
to  such  alleged  expressions  of  public  sentiment, 
because  they  represent  nothing.  The  pressure 
must  be  in  the  right  way. 

Letters,  however,  from  constituents  and  espe- 
cially from  prominent  members  of  the  community 
to  their  own  representatives,  are  of  value,  espe- 
cially letters  which  indicate  not  only  an  interest  in 
the  subject  but  a  knowledge  of  it  and  a  considera- 
tion of  the  essential  principles  involved  in  the 

162 


HOW   TO    SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

particular  measure  under  consideration.  Edi- 
torials from  influential  newspapers  published  at 
timely  periods  are  another  form  of  pressure  in  the 
right  way.  Personal  requests  from  the  constitu- 
ents of  members  are  probably  of  even  more  potent 
influence. 

There  is  great  danger  from  the  amateur  in  this 
field.  The  writing  of  letters  to  members  of  the 
legislature,  as  well  as  the  sending  of  telegrams, 
has  been  greatly  overdone  in  recent  years;  so 
much  so  that  it  would  almost  seem  as  if  this 
method  of  influencing  public  sentiment  were  los- 
ing such  value  as  it  once  had.  When  rightly 
done,  I  know  of  nothing,  however,  that  can  take 
its  place.  The  thing  to  be  guarded  against  is 
making  it  mechanical;  especially  sending  printed 
letters  or  postal  cards  to  individuals  asking  them 
to  sign  and  send  to  their  representatives.  Such 
documents  are  of  no  more  value  than  the  petition 
and  are  in  fact  only  another  form  of  it. 

Some  objection  pertains  to  organized  letter 
writing  even  when  properly  done.  It  is  of  course 
impossible  to  expect  that  the  members  of  the 
legislature  will  not  recognize  the  fact  that  such 
expressions  of  opinion  are  sent  them  by  request 
and  are  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  inspired.  This 
will  be  discounted  by  them,  but  there  will  still 
remain  strongly  impressed  upon  their  minds  the 
extent  of  the  organization  that  exists  in  behalf 
of  a  particular  project  and  an  appreciation  on  their 
part  that  a  considerable  number  of  people  among 

.63 


HOUSING    REFORM 

their  constituents  are  sufficiently  interested  in  the 
subject  to  write  letters  upon  the  request  of  some 
person  more  deeply  interested.  The  pressure 
must  be  in  the  right  way. 

It  must  also  be  by  the  right  person.  The 
opinion  of  the  man  who  is  totally  unknown  to  a 
member  of  the  legislature  can  not  be  expected 
to  have  very  much  influence  upon  him,  and  yet 
many  social  reformers  lose  sight  of  this  completely; 
they  seem  to  think  that  it  is  the  number  of  demon- 
strations which  counts,  not  the  quality.  Find 
out  who  the  man  is  that  has  the  greatest  influence 
with  the  particular  senator  or  assemblyman  that 
you  want  to  interest  in  your  project  and  reach 
him  through  his  friend.  If  you  are  seeking  politi- 
cal influence,  enlist  his  political  chief  in  the  cause. 
Sometimes  it  may  be  the  district  leader;  some- 
times the  state  committeeman;  sometimes  it  may 
be  the  governor  of  the  state.  The  pressure  must 
be  by  the  right  person. 

A  legislative  campaign  is  akin  to  warfare.  It 
is  like  a  military  campaign  and  in  it  the  regulars 
always  have  the  advantage  of  the  volunteers; 
they  know  the  game;  they  are  not  gun-shy;  they 
have  been  on  the  firing  line  before;  they  know 
what  to  expect.  As  in  ordinary  warfare,  organi- 
zation is  essential  to  success.  To  be  successful 
there  must  be  a  plan  of  campaign,  and  that  plan 
must  be  carried  out  by  shrewd  generals  who  have 
won  their  right  to  lead  by  success  in  many  cam- 
paigns. Above  all  things,  there  must  be  recog- 

164 


HOW   TO    SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

nized  leadership.  Mob  rule  can  not  succeed  here 
any  more  than  in  ordinary  warfare. 

Sometimes  the  enemy  must  be  fought  by  his 
own  methods;  strategy  must  be  resorted  to  when 
necessary;  every  move  in  the  game  must  at  times 
be  taken  advantage  of.  If  to  secure  its  success- 
ful passage  it  is  necessary  to  manoeuvre — to  cast 
your  bill  in  certain  forms  in  order  to  get  it  before 
a  committee  which  will  be  favorable  to  it  and 
away  from  a  committee  which  will  be  antag- 
onistic to  it — this  must  be  done. 

Progress  in  legislation  rests  on  compromise. 
The  member  of  the  legislature  is  pulled  this  way 
and  that  by  conflicting  interests.  He  is  told  by 
one  group  of  people  that  the  project  under  con- 
sideration is  visionary  and  will  result  in  great 
injury  to  important  interests;  by  another  group 
that  it  is  a  sane,  practicable,  common-sense  plan, 
commended  by  the  entire  community  except  one 
or  two  particular  interests  which  are  adversely 
affected  by  it.  With  no  direct  sources  of  informa- 
tion, as  far  as  he  can  see  the  opinions  of  the  one 
group  are  entitled  to  as  much  consideration  as 
the  other.  The  legislator  generally  solves  the 
difficulty  by  compromising:  by  giving  something 
to  one  group  and  taking  a  little  from  the  other. 
This  generally  satisfies  neither;  but  in  the  long 
run  the  various  interests  adjust  themselves  to  such 
decisions  and  often  with  surprising  facility. 

Social  reformers  should  recognize  this  and  should 
base  their  recommendations  upon  it.  They  should 

165 


HOUSING    REFORM 

not  make  the  error  of  compromising  before  they 
have  to;  of  anticipating  the  opposition  that  is 
going  to  be  brought  against  the  measures  they 
have  in  view  and  saying  to  themselves:  "We  dare 
not  go  this  far  because  such  and  such  interests 
will  be  sure  to  oppose  us  and  there  is  no  hope  of 
securing  what  we  desire."  The  result  is  that, 
having  compromised  in  advance  of  the  necessity, 
they  are  forced  when  the  actual  occasion  arrives 
to  compromise  still  further  and  to  consent  to  the 
enactment  of  something  that  is  far  below  the 
standard  that  would  have  been  possible.  Don't 
compromise  until  you  have  to.  It  is  also  a  good 
thing  to  have  something  to  compromise  with. 
If  you  expect  and  earnestly  desire  to  secure  the 
enactment  of  a  housing  law,  for  instance,  limiting 
the  percentage  of  lot  that  may  be  covered  to 
seventy  per  cent,  don't  start  with  any  such 
standard  in  your  proposal.  Start  at  sixty-five; 
have  five  per  cent  to  compromise  with.  If  you 
start  at  seventy,  you  may  be  quite  sure  that  you 
will  end  at  seventy-five. 

It  is  also  vitally  important  to  be  prepared  to 
legislate  on  a  basis  of  fact  and  not  on  impressions. 
You  must  not  only  know  your  facts  but  be  able 
to  demonstrate  conclusively  to  the  members  of  the 
legislature  that  you  know  them  and  that  you 
stand  upon  solid  ground.  Do  not  forget  also, 
that  they  come  from  widely  scattered  communi- 
ties and  may  not  be  familiar  with  the  conditions 
which  you  are  seeking  to  remedy.  As  a  rule,  the 

1 66 


HOW   TO    SECURE    LEGISLATIVE    REFORMS 

rural  members  of  a  legislature  need  to  be  thor- 
oughly enlightened  with  regard  to  housing  con- 
ditions which  prevail  in  cities.  Such  conditions 
they  do  not  dream  can  exist.  They  should  see 
the  conditions  at  first  hand.  Where  this  is  not 
possible,  they  should  see  photographs  and  often 
models. 

When  he  has  been  informed  and  aroused  it  will 
generally  be  found  that  the  rural  member  of  the 
legislature  is  a  most  potent  ally  in  housing  reform. 
He  has  not  become  case-hardened  to  the  condi- 
tions which  prevail  in  the  cities,  he  is  not  subject 
to  the  pressure  of  the  local  influences  there  which 
desire  to  perpetuate  them  and  he  has  standards 
which  make  the  conditions  that  prevail  in  most 
cities  seem  to  him  intolerable  and  to  cry  aloud 
for  remedy. 

It  is  wise,  too,  to  constantly  remind  oneself 
that  the  members  of  the  legislature  are  subject  to 
human  influences;  that  startling  as  it  may  seem, 
they  may  vote  for  your  measure,  not  because  of 
its  merits,  but  because  of  their  friendship  for  you 
or  for  the  member  who  happens  to  sit  next  to 
them  who  wants  to  see  the  bill  pass. 

One  word  of  caution  against  overdoing  it  in 
campaigning  for  legislative  reforms.  The  social 
worker  in  his  zeal  runs  a  very  serious  risk  of 
wearing  out  his  welcome; — of  importuning  the 
members  of  the  legislature  too  much.  Do  not 
lose  your  perspective.  The  member  of  the  legis- 
lature is  interested  in  a  great  many  other  things. 

167 


HOUSING    REFORM 

Your  measure  is  but  one  very  small,  minor  matter 
to  him — a  mere  incident  of  the  session. 

To  sum  it  up:  Legislative  reforms  are  to  be 
accomplished  only  by  patient,  skilled,  well- 
directed  effort.  They  are  not  achieved  by  acci- 
dent, inspiration  or  enthusiasm. 


168 


XIII 

THE  FIELD  OF  PRIVATE  EFFORT 


XIII 
THE  FIELD  OF  PRIVATE  EFFORT 

WHILE  the  main  burden  in  the  movement 
for  housing  reform  must  be  borne  by 
public  officials,  there  is  a  large  field 
to  be  occupied  by  private  citizens.  The  two  ef- 
forts must  supplement  each  other  at  every  point. 
Neither  alone  is  sufficient.  But  the  two  fields  are 
distinct.  There  are  many  things  which  the  govern- 
ment may  do  which  can  not  be  done  effectively  by 
private  citizens;  and  there  are  many  things  that  it 
is  better  for  the  private  citizen  to  do  than  for  the 
government  to  undertake.  It  is  quite  impossible, 
for  instance,  for  private  effort  to  see  to  it  effectively 
that  thousands  of  tenement  houses  or  even  hun- 
dreds are  maintained  in  a  sanitary  condition. 
This  is  clearly  a  governmental  function.  On  the 
other  hand  there  is  much  to  be  done  which  it  is 
not  the  province  of  government  to  assume. 

The  first  and  most  important  way  in  which 
private  citizens  can  aid  the  cause  of  housing 
reform  is  in  the  organization  of  a  citizens'  com- 
mittee for  the  purpose  of  securing  such  legislation 
as  may  be  necessary  to  regulate  the  construction 
and  supervise  the  maintenance  of  the  homes  of 

171 


HOUSING    REFORM 

the  people  and  to  provide  the  adequate  adminis- 
trative machinery  for  carrying  such  laws  into 
effect. 

The  mistake  that  is  too  often  made  by  many 
people  is  in  losing  their  interest  and  in  feeling 
that  their  work  is  accomplished  when  some 
legislative  reform  has  been  achieved.  So  far 
from  being  the  termination  of  their  efforts  such  a 
period  should  really  mark  the  beginning  of  their 
main  work.  Any  important  change  in  the  laws 
will  at  first  bring  opposition  from  those  interests 
which  are  affected  by  it.  Unless  its  friends  are 
alert,  it  frequently  happens  that  important  legis- 
lative reforms  are  within  a  year  or  two  nullified 
by  the  interests  adversely  affected. 

Moreover,  housing  laws  are  difficult  to  frame. 
It  is  not  always  possible  to  anticipate  with  suffi- 
cient precision,  conditions  which  may  arise,  and  it 
will  generally  be  found  that  such  enactments 
need  subsequent  amendment.  It  is  far  better 
that  housing  laws  should  be  amended  by  their 
friends  than  by  their  enemies.  If  their  friends  do 
not  act  you  may  be  sure  that  their  enemies  will. 
Private  citizens  should,  therefore,  after  bringing 
about  some  important  legislative  reform,  watch 
with  great  care  its  effect,  and  with  an  open  mind 
be  prepared  to  make  such  changes  as  may  be 
necessary  to  make  it  more  perfectly  accomplish 
the  ends  desired  and  to  remove  any  unnecessary 
hardship  that  may  have  been  unwittingly  involved. 

Then  there  is  a  very  important  and  valuable 
172 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

function  to  perform  in  aiding  administrative  of- 
ficers in  the  interpretation  of  laws  which  often 
they  have  had  no  part  in  formulating.  This  is  a 
very  real  service.  The  intent  of  a  statute  may 
have  been  very  clear  in  the  mind  of  the  person 
who  framed  it,  but  it  may  seem  to  have  a  totally 
different  meaning  and  purpose  to  some  one  else 
who  is  interpreting  it  without  that  particular 
knowledge. 

The  next  important  way  in  which  citizens  can 
advance  the  cause  of  housing  reform  is  through  a 
permanent  and  adequate  system  of  what  may  be 
termed  "law  enforcement" — namely,  of  seeing 
that  the  local  authorities  properly  administer  the 
laws.  At  first  thought  it  would  appear  that  this 
ought  not  to  be  necessary;  that  citizens  should 
not  have  to  hire  some  outside  person  to  watch 
the  enforcement  of  statutes  by  public  officials 
whose  compensation  they  are  taxed  to  defray. 
This  unofficial  government,  however,  is  a  necessity 
especially  in  the  large  cities.  Municipal  adminis- 
tration has  become  so  complex  and  the  functions 
of  the  municipality  so  much  extended,  that  without 
this  public-spirited  service  on  the  part  of  citizens 
there  is  serious  danger  of  the  failure  of  democratic 
institutions. 

There  could  not  be  a  more  wholesome  stimulus 
for  the  public  official,  than  the  knowledge  that  a 
group  of  leading  citizens  is  vitally  interested  in 
the  proper  administration  of  his  department  and 
that  they  are  contributing  time  and  money  to 


HOUSING    REFORM 

that  end.  Such  a  scheme  of  law  enforcement 
should  be  on  a  basis  of  co-operation  with  the  public 
officials  and  not  on  a  basis  of  antagonistic  criti- 
cism. It  must  assume  that  the  public  official  is 
honest  and  conscientious  and  desires  to  secure 
the  best  administration  of  his  department,  even 
when  it  seems  otherwise.  It  is  surprising  to  see 
the  way  in  which  even  the  worst  politician  responds 
to  an  appeal  upon  such  a  basis.  Realizing  the 
standard  that  has  been  set  for  him  and  that 
public  sentiment  expects  him  to  adhere  to  such 
a  standard,  he  becomes  stimulated  to  greater 
efforts  and  more  efficient  work,  if  only  through 
fear  of  the  criticism  that  will  be  directed  to  him. 
Of  course  there  are  occasions  when  it  becomes 
necessary  to  frankly  and  severely  criticise  the 
head  of  a  department,  even  going  so  far  as 
to  demand  his  removal  from  office  when  once 
convinced  that  any  proper  administration  of  the 
department  under  him  is  hopeless.  Such  proce- 
dure, however,  should  be  resorted  to  only  where 
all  reasonable  efforts  to  bring  about  a  better 
administration  have  failed  and  where  there  is  a 
fair  expectation  of  securing  the  appointment  of  a 
better  man  in  his  place.  Charges  against  public 
officials  are  often  too  recklessly  preferred  by 
private  citizens  in  reform  movements.  It  is  a 
dangerous  thing  to  undertake,  unless  one  is  very 
sure  of  the  facts.  A  public  official  has  a  very 
disconcerting  way  sometimes  of  knowing  more 
about  the  subject  than  the  private  citizen  and 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

of  making  charges  seem  very  ridiculous.  No  one 
thing  stands  out  more  strikingly  in  the  history  of 
the  effort  for  municipal  reform  than  the  failure 
of  the  reformer  to  make  good  in  such  instances. 
The  trouble  is  that  he  relies  too  much  upon  his 
own  belief  as  to  the  inefficiency  and  bad  faith  of 
the  official,  not  realizing  that  to  secure  his  removal 
from  office  he  must  be  able  to  prove  conclusively 
to  the  removing  officer  clear-cut,  specific  instances 
which,  beyond  shadow  of  doubt,  indicate  the  un- 
fitness  of  the  public  official  for  his  office.  There 
is  a  great  difference  between  moral  certainty  and 
legal  certainty. 

There  is  another  side  to  it  as  well.  The  public 
official  is  human  and  susceptible  to  the  influences 
which  ordinarily  affect  human  beings.  The  people 
he  finds  friendly  and  helpful  to  him  are  likely  to 
have  influence  with  him.  The  people  who  criti- 
cize him  unjustly,  without  an  appreciation  of  the 
limitations  and  difficulties  under  which  he  is 
working,  he  is  apt  not  to  give  much  heed  to. 
Here  again  is  another  point  of  difficulty.  In  such 
movements  few  citizens  take  the  time  to  familiar- 
ize themselves  with  the  limitations  under  which 
municipal  officers  work.  They  see  a  tenement 
house  in  an  unsanitary  condition  and  they  at 
once  assume  that  the  official  is  neglecting  his 
duties.  As  a  rule  they  seldom  ask  themselves 
whether  these  conditions  may  not  have  had  his 
attention  already  and  what  the  reasons  may  be 
which  have  led  to  the  continuance  of  this  apparent 

'75 


HOUSING   REFORM 

neglect.  Few  realize  how  long  it  takes  sometimes 
to  bring  about  improvements  in  a  particular  case. 

Social  workers  frequently  offend  in  this  way. 
They  complain  to  the  health  officer  about  some 
unsanitary  condition  and  then  perhaps  a  week 
later,  finding  no  change  in  the  situation,  condemn 
the  officer  for  not  having  performed  his  duty  and 
state  that  there  is  no  use  in  sending  complaints 
to  him;  not  realizing  the  length  of  time  necessarily 
consumed  in  such  matters  nor  the  various  processes 
that  must  be  gone  through  before  results  can  be 
obtained.  Especially  in  this  connection  we  should 
apply  to  ourselves  the  old  warning,  "  I  pray  you 
by  the  mercies  of  God  to  remember  that  you  may 
be  mistaken." 

For  these  reasons,  and  for  many  others,  it  will 
be  found  that  it  is  unwise  to  attempt  any  plan 
of  law  enforcement — that  is,  of  calling  the  atten- 
tion of  the  municipal  authorities  to  housing  evils 
which  require  attention — through  volunteer  work- 
ers. In  the  first  place  it  is  very  difficult  to  secure 
volunteers  who  have  a  working  knowledge  of 
what  constitutes  bad  housing  conditions,  and  no 
volunteer  worker  can  as  a  rule  give  the  time  for 
the  patient  and  careful  study  that  is  necessary  to 
equip  him  with  the  expert  sanitary  knowledge  that 
is  requisite  in  such  work.  It  is  essential,  there- 
fore, in  any  movement  of  this  kind,  to  have  the 
services  of  a  competent,  properly  compensated, 
trained  expert. 

Where  any  plan  of  law  enforcement  is  taken  up 
176 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

it  will  be  found  best  to  proceed  upon  a  district 
basis;  that  is,  to  concentrate  on  a  given  neigh- 
borhood and  to  systematically  inspect  one  house 
after  another  in  that  neighborhood,  calling  the 
attention  of  the  local  authorities  to  the  conditions 
that  are  discovered.  This  is  far  wiser  than  at- 
tempting to  spread  out  all  over  the  city  at  one 
time  and  much  fairer  to  owners  and  to  the  en- 
forcing authorities. 

Another  important  way  in  which  the  private 
citizen  can  aid  the  cause  of  housing  reform  is  in 
the  formation  of  companies  to  take  over  the 
management  of  tenement  houses.  In  some  cities 
this  has  been  combined  with  the  ownership  of 
model  tenements,  where  a  company  already  run- 
ning such  house  has  advantageously  taken  over 
the  management  of  other  tenements.  But  the  two 
are  not  necessarily  connected. 

Housing  evils  are  in  the  main  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  owners  of  the  property  are  either  unaware 
or  neglectful  of  the  conditions  which  exist  or  are 
ignorant  of  the  right  way  in  which  to  manage 
property  of  this  kind.  The  city  can  do  much  in 
forcing  owners  to  keep  their  property  in  a  sanitary 
condition,  but  this  is  an  unending  task.  Few 
cities  are  sufficiently  well  equipped  to  do  this 
adequately.  Their  work  should  be  supplemented, 
therefore,  as  far  as  possible  by  private  effort.  The 
simplest  and  wisest  way  to  supplement  it  is  to  sub- 
stitute for  a  neglectful,  ignorant  and  careless  land- 
lord, a  careful,  conscientious  and  attentive  one. 

12  ,77 


HOUSING    REFORM 

This  by  no  means  necessitates  any  change  in  the 
ownership  of  the  property.  It  is  a  question  of 
management.  The  management  of  a  tenement 
house  in  which  there  are  many  families  is  not  a  sim- 
ple task.  It  requires  experience,  good  judgment, 
patience,  tact,  intelligence  and  knowledge  of  hu- 
man nature.  It  should  be  done  by  persons  who 
by  temperament  and  experience  are  fitted  for 
this  particular  field.  Good  management  of  tene- 
ment houses  pays.  A  well  managed  tenement 
house  is  more  profitable  in  the  long  run  to  an 
owner  than  a  poorly  managed  one.  In  such 
houses  there  are  fewer  losses  from  vacant  rooms 
and  from  bad  debts,  and  a  much  smaller  bill  for 
repairs. 

Next  to  securing  improved  laws  and  their  proper 
administration,  no  better  form  of  private  effort 
can  be  found  than  the  formation  of  companies  for 
the  proper,  efficient  and  economical  management 
of  tenement  house  property.  Excellent  results 
in  this  direction  have  been  obtained  in  London, 
and  in  America,  especially  in  Philadelphia  through 
the  work  of  the  Octavia  Hill  Association.  The 
City  and  Suburban  Homes  Company  of  New  York 
has  recently  extended  its  work  into  this  field  and 
is  obtaining  satisfactory  results. 

In  this  work  there  is  a  distinct  opportunity  for 
women.  A  woman  as  a  rule  is  more  successful 
than  a  man.  This  is  not  strange,  as  the  larger 
part  of  tenement  house  management  is  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  sympathetic  understanding 

,78 


THE    FIELD    OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

and  good  housekeeping.  The  secret  of  success  is 
in  maintaining  satisfactory  relations  with  the 
tenants,  in  making  them  consider  it  a  real  privilege 
to  live  in  your  house  and  a  calamity  to  be  forced 
to  go  elsewhere.  This  result  is  not  so  difficult  to 
bring  about  as  it  may  seem.  As  soon  as  the 
tenants  experience  the  benefits  of  the  new  regime 
and  realize  that  their  landlord  has  human  relations 
with  them,  most  obstacles  to  a  proper  understand- 
ing disappear. 

Of  course  a  proper  understanding  can  not  be 
had  with  tenants  unless  they  are  decent  people; 
but  decent  landlords  need  have  no  other  kind. 
If  they  get  them,  it  is  entirely  their  own  fault. 
That  they  do  get  them  to  the  great  extent  which 
they  now  do,  is  not  surprising  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  they  make  little  effort  to  safeguard  them- 
selves. Nothing  is  easier  than  keeping  out  of 
one's  house  objectionable  tenants,  provided  one 
is  willing  to  take  a  little  pains.  It  is  a  perfectly 
simple  thing  before  taking  in  new  tenants,  to 
require  references  as  to  character,  especially  from 
the  places  in  which  they  have  previously  resided. 
It  is  equally  simple  to  adopt  the  practice  of  visit- 
ing their  previous  residences  and  there  ascertain- 
ing the  essential  things  with  regard  to  them, 
namely,  whether  they  are  respectable,  temperate 
people  and  pay  their  rent  promptly.  This  is  an 
essential  prerequisite  to  proper  tenement  house 
management. 

Another  very  desirable  thing  is  to  make  it  to 
179 


HOUSING    REFORM 

the  interest  of  the  tenants  to  take  care  of  the  house 
as  if  it  were  their  own  property.  The  best  method 
that  has  been  devised  thus  far  of  accomplishing 
this  has  been  the  admirable  plan  that  is  adopted 
by  some  companies,  of  allowing  each  family 
repairs  and  re-decorations  each  year  to  the  amount 
of  one  month's  rent  and  then  permitting  the  ten- 
ants, if  they  so  maintain  their  rooms  that  it  is 
not  necessary  to  spend  this  money,  to  have  the 
benefit  of  it  as  a  deduction  from  their  rent.  This 
gives  to  each  family  a  direct  incentive  to  careful 
use  of  the  apartments. 

Another  form  of  effort  in  which  private  citizens 
may  wisely  engage  is  in  buying  up  from  time  to 
time  some  of  the  more  antiquated  houses,  im- 
proving them  in  the  more  essential  respects, 
letting  light  into  dark  rooms,  doing  away  with 
antiquated  sanitary  conveniences  and  substitut- 
ing modern  ones,  improving  generally  the  tone, 
appearance  and  quality  of  the  house,  and,  when 
such  renovation  has  been  completed,  putting  in  a 
higher  grade  of  tenants  and  then,  as  opportunity 
offers,  selling  the  building  at  a  reasonable  advance 
and  investing  the  money  in  other  buildings,  and 
repeating  this  process  indefinitely.  One's  capital 
is  thus  always  live  capital,  and  a  large  field  of 
influence  is  possible.  It  is  an  excellent  way  also 
of  stimulating  other  owners  to  the  improvement 
of  their  property.  If  a  number  of  houses  in  a 
neighborhood  are  improved  in  this  way  it  will  be 

1 80 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

found  that  other  owners  will  wake  up  to  the  neces- 
sity of  making  similar  changes  in  their  property. 

There  is  almost  an  unlimited  field  to  be  occupied 
in  the  study  of  social  conditions  and  the  deter- 
mination of  their  relation  to  housing  problems. 
Such  questions  as  rentals,  overcrowding,  the  lodger 
evil,  tenement  labor,  offer  wide  fields  of  effort  for 
the  good  of  the  community. 

In  general,  a  fruitful  source  of  endeavor  is  to 
be  found  in  the  education  of  the  community. 
This  indeed  is  a  prerequisite  to  all  successful 
effort.  A  campaign  for  improved  housing  laws 
can  not  succeed  until  there  has  been  created  a 
sound  public  sentiment  which  demands  their 
enactment  and  is  unwilling  to  tolerate  the  further 
existence  of  unsanitary  conditions. 

The  most  potent  factor  in  creating  this  sentiment 
is  the  press.  Here  is  the  means  of  quickly  and 
in  a  striking  way  reaching  thousands  of  people  in 
a  few  moments,  where  by  any  other  method  only 
hundreds  could  be  reached  during  a  considerable 
period.  Without  the  support  of  the  press  little 
progress  can  be  expected  in  housing  reform  in  any 
community.  As  a  rule  it  is  not  difficult  to  obtain 
that  support.  The  policy  of  a  paper  is  determined 
by  its  proprietor  and  its  editors,  and  they  are 
influenced  primarily  by  what  they  think  will  appeal 
to  the  intelligence  and  judgment  of  their  readers. 
In  addition,  editors  and  newspaper  proprietors 
are  of  course  influenced  by  the  views  of  their 
friends  and  by  the  views  of  men  of  standing  in  the 

181 


HOUSING   REFORM 

community.  Sometimes  in  rare  instances  such 
influence  is  exerted  against  the  cause  of  housing 
reform.  Owners  of  unsanitary  tenements,  some- 
times our  "best  citizens,"  exert  their  influence  to 
prevent  the  passage  and  enforcement  of  laws  which 
may  affect  them  financially.  This,  however,  is 
not  a  condition  that  generally  prevails. 

The  best  appeal,  however,  to  the  editor  or 
proprietor  of  a  paper  is  the  appeal  to  his  own  rea- 
son. You  are  not  only  dealing  with  an  editor, 
but  with  a  man.  If  there  are  conditions  in  your 
city  which  cry  aloud  for  remedy,  which  are  in- 
tolerable, which  produce  disease  and  death  and 
lead  to  social  and  moral  degradation,  you  do  not 
need  to  rest  your  effort  to  secure  the  support  of  a 
particular  newspaper  upon  the  recommendations 
of  any  citizen,  no  matter  how  influential  he  may 
be.  There  is  a  much  easier  and  simpler  way. 
Take  your  editor  to  the  conditions  and  let  him 
observe  them  at  first  hand.  It  takes  a  little  more 
time  to  do  this  but  the  effort  is  more  than  amply 
repaid.  An  impression  thus  gained  is  not  easily 
eradicated.  One  actual  physical  inspection  by 
the  editor  in  person  is  worth  all  the  articles  that 
you  may  ever  send  him  for  publication.  This  is 
the  keynote  of  the  whole  educational  movement 
in  housing  reform.  Let  the  people  understand 
the  facts.  Where  they  cannot  see  conditions  at 
first  hand  acquaint  them  with  such  conditions  by 
means  of  photographs. 

The  education  of  the  community  must  go  on 
182 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

all  the  time.  It  is  not  something  to  be  done  at 
one  particular  moment  and  then  dropped.  It  is 
an  inherent  part  of  any  scheme  for  housing  im- 
provement. The  community  must  progress  with 
you  if  you  are  to  expect  advanced  standards. 

There  is  a  very  large  field  to  be  cultivated  in 
educating  tenants  to  a  better  knowledge  of  right 
ways  of  living  and  to  a  higher  standard  of  their 
own  responsibilities.  Even  though  the  landlord 
neglects  to  care  for  the  public  parts  of  his  building 
the  fact  remains  that  if  each  tenant  had  a  keen 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  maintenance  of 
sanitary  conditions,  few  unsanitary  conditions 
would  exist.  The  increasing  foreign  population 
seriously  complicates  the  problem.  Ignorant  of 
our  language,  and  not  accustomed  to  methods 
of  living  that  they  find  here,  they  do  not  easily 
adapt  themselves  to  the  changed  conditions,  and 
frequently  adopt  habits  which  render  difficult 
the  maintenance  of  proper  standards.  Most  of 
them  err  through  ignorance,  not  by  intent; 
perhaps  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  through 
thoughtlessness.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  throw 
waste  material  out  of  a  window  of  a  tenement  if 
one  lives  on  the  upper  stories  than  it  is  to  put  it 
in  a  pail  and  carry  it  down  several  flights  of  stairs. 
Many  who  do  this  would  not  do  so  if  they  under- 
stood that  this  practice  resulted  in  conditions 
which  cause  sickness  to  themselves  and  their 
children  as  well  as  to  their  neighbors. 

The  importance  of  adequate  ventilation  in  their 
183 


HOUSING    REFORM 

homes  has  never  been  impressed  upon  them.  It 
is  only  in  rare  instances  that  one  finds  a  tenement 
house  dweller  awake  to  this.  One  may  provide 
tenement  houses  with  large  rooms,  with  ample 
light  and  air  and  yet  the  tenants  by  keeping 
their  windows  shut  day  and  night,  live  in  close, 
badly  ventilated  rooms.  They  must  be  taught 
the  significance  of  good  ventilation  and  of  bad 
ventilation,  and  they  must  be  taught  in  a  way  that 
they  will  comprehend.  You  can  not  appeal  to 
them  successfully  on  abstract  principles,  but  you 
can  appeal  most  successfully  if  you  make  your 
appeal  direct  and  personal. 

How  valuable  would  be  a  movement  which  in- 
structed tenants  thoroughly  with  regard  to  the  im- 
portance of  having  their  windows  open  at  night; 
which  broke  down  the  old  superstition  of  the  dan- 
gers of  night  air — inbred  for  generations  in  the 
Italian  peasants  who  come  to  this  country.  It 
is  not  strange  that  this  belief  should  still  prevail 
among  the  simple  working  people  who  have  come 
here  from  various  European  countries,  where  ow- 
ing to  the  prevalence  of  malaria-breeding  mos- 
quitoes, the  practice  of  keeping  windows  open  at 
night  was  a  menace. 

How  many  tenants  understand  modern  plumb- 
ing or  realize  the  dangers  connected  with  it  and 
the  necessity  for  its  proper  care?  They  have  some 
waste  material  they  wish  to  dispose  of,  and  what 
more  natural  than  for  them  to  put  it  in  the  closet? 
It  disappears  and  bothers  them  no  more — so  they 

184 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

think.  They  do  not  realize  that  they  may  be 
creating  serious  sanitary  evils,  which  will  result 
in  unnecessary  expense  to  the  landlord  and,  if 
neglected  by  him,  in  sickness  to  themselves  and  to 
other  tenants. 

An  organized  movement,  therefore,  for  the 
education  of  tenants  in  the  essential  affairs  of 
domestic  life  would  be  most  profitable  in  its 
results.  Such  a  plan  could  be  wisely  carried  out 
in  two  ways:  First,  through  proper  instruction  in 
the  public  schools,  thus  reaching  the  children  and 
insuring  that  the  next  generation  shall  have  had 
the  opportunity  of  appreciating  the  significance 
of  these  questions.  A  considerable  amount  of 
this  information  will  filter  from  the  child  to  its 
parents. 

The  other  method  would  be  through  the  sys- 
tematic visitation  in  their  homes  in  accordance 
with  a  well  developed  plan,  of  each  family  in  a 
given  neighborhood  by  some  person  with  a  special 
gift  for  influencing  people  of  this  kind.  Such  a 
plan  has  been  carried  out  very  successfully  in  some 
cities,  notably,  in  the  City  of  Yonkers,  where  for 
several  years  past  a  woman  inspector  connected 
with  the  Health  Department  has  carried  on  such 
work.  Her  work  has  not  been  limited,  however, 
solely  to  the  sanitary  care  of  the  home  but  has 
embraced  such  important  questions  as  the  care  of 
children,  proper  diet,  methods  of  cooking,  as  well 
as  questions  of  personal  and  house  cleanliness. 
An  important  adjunct  to  any  such  plan  is  the  dis- 

185 


HOUSING    REFORM 

tribution  of  educational  leaflets.  These,  however, 
should  be  put  in  very  simple  form  to  be  effective. 
It  will  be  found  as  a  rule  that  the  greatest  influ- 
ence will  come  from  the  personal  relationships  es- 
tablished. 

Almost,  though  not  quite,  as  important  is  the 
education  of  the  landlord.  A  man  who  has 
acquired  property  is  not  likely  to  believe  that  he 
needs  to  be  instructed  with  regard  to  its  manage- 
ment. He  is  quite  confident,  as  a  rule,  that  he 
understands  how  to  run  his  house  better  than 
anybody  else.  Sometimes  he  does.  Often,  how- 
ever, he  does  not.  The  test  of  it  is  found  in  the 
conditions  that  exist.  If  his  house  is  clean, 
orderly,  the  tenants  of  good  character,  the  vacan- 
cies few  and  his  bills  for  repairs  small,  it  is  quite 
obvious  that  he  needs  no  instruction  from  any- 
body as  to  how  to  run  his  building.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  house  is  in  an  unsanitary  con- 
dition, or  there  is  an  undue  number  of  vacant 
apartments  or  he  is  obtaining  comparatively  little 
income  from  his  property,  it  is  pretty  evident  that 
the  house  is  not  being  well  managed  and  that  the 
landlord  has  something  to  learn.  Even  in  such 
cases  he  will  be  loath  to  admit  this.  The  landlord 
under  such  circumstances,  when  urged  to  consider 
whether  the  management  of  his  property  can  not 
be  improved,  is  likely  to  reply  in  the  same  vein 
as  did  the  tenant  who,  when  urged  by  the  woman 
sanitary  inspector  to  make  certain  changes  with 
regard  to  her  methods  of  caring  for  her  children, 

186 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

replied  that  "she  guessed  she  didn't  need  anybody 
to  tell  her  how  to  bring  up  children;  she  had 
buried  seven  of  them." 

The  method  of  approach  is  the  same  in  both 
cases.  The  tenant  must  be  made  to  see  that  the 
fact  that  she  had  buried  seven  children  was  an 
indictment  of  her  methods  of  management;  the 
landlord  must  be  made  to  see  that  the  fact  that 
he  has  to  spend  large  sums  of  money  each  year 
on  repairs,  that  he  loses  a  great  deal  of  money  on 
account  of  vacant  apartments  and  bad  debts,  is 
an  indictment  of  his  methods  of  running  his  house. 

What  are  the  main  things  which  the  landlord 
needs  to  learn?  The  first  and  most  vital  thing 
for  him  to  learn  is  that  it  is  against  his  interest 
to  have  unsanitary  conditions  prevail  in  his 
property;  that  it  is  to  his  interest  to  have  his 
property  maintained  in  a  clean  and  proper  con- 
dition; that  even  though  this  involves  spending 
money,  it  will  be  money  saved  in  the  end;  that 
the  character  of  his  tenants  is  of  vital  concern  to 
him  and  that  he  has  it  within  his  power  to  choose 
his  tenants;  that  there  is  more  profit  in  having  a 
house  filled  with  contented  people  who  desire  to 
remain  there  for  a  long  time,  and  with  no  vacant 
apartments,  than  there  is  in  having  many  vacant 
apartments  and  a  few  tenants  paying  higher 
rents;  and,  finally,  the  landlord  should  have 
awakened  in  him  a  sense  of  moral  responsibility 
with  regard  to  the  welfare  of  his  tenants.  He  has 
an  unusual  opportunity  for  influencing  for  good 

.87 


HOUSING    REFORM 

or  ill  the  welfare  of  hundreds  of  lives.  Such  an 
appeal  can  not  be  made  in  the  first  instance, 
perhaps,  but  can  be  made  ultimately.  The  appeal 
to  self-interest  is  the  one  that  must  be  made  first; 
the  appeal  to  enlightened  conscience  afterward. 

How  is  the  education  of  landlords  to  be  brought 
about?  Just  exactly  as  the  education  of  tenants: 
In  an  organized  way  by  people  who  know  more 
about  the  landlord's  business  than  he  does.  It 
will  not  do  to  send  people  to  teach  him  who  are 
not  competent  to  teach.  It  will  not  do  to  send 
people  who  can  not  gain  his  confidence.  You 
must  first  get  your  influence  before  you  use  it. 
You  can't  get  your  influence  with  the  landlord 
unless  he  is  convinced  that  your  knowledge  of  the 
subject  exceeds  his  own.  That,  you  have  to  de- 
monstrate. He  will  not  take  you  at  your  own  es- 
timate or  at  that  of  another.  You  must  let  him 
see  what  is  being  done  by  other  landlords  and 
the  advantages  that  accrue  from  their  methods, 
and  you  must  be  prepared  for  his  resisting  every 
suggestion  you  make.  In  that  regard  he  is  alto- 
gether human. 

Another  form  of  useful  effort  along  educational 
lines  is  in  the  training  of  janitors  for  the  care  of 
tenement  houses.  In  our  large  cities  where  the 
type  of  house  is  one  occupied  by  many  families 
and  where  a  janitor  or  resident  housekeeper  is 
essential,  this  is  of  greater  importance  than  in 
the  smaller  communities.  It  is  not  strange  that 
tenement  houses  are  often  kept  in  a  neglected 

188 


THE    FIELD   OF    PRIVATE    EFFORT 

condition  when  we  reflect  that  we  entrust  the 
care  of  twenty  families — one  hundred  people — the 
adjustment  of  their  social  differences,  the  decision 
as  to  the  use  of  the  public  parts  of  the  building,  the 
necessary  discipline,  etc.,  to  some  ignorant  man 
or  woman  totally  unfamiliar  with  sanitary  require- 
ments, with  no  special  standards  of  their  own,  with 
no  knowledge  of  sanitary  plumbing  or  what  it 
means  and  with  generally  such  inadequate  com- 
pensation that  it  necessitates  their  following  some 
other  occupation  for  their  main  source  of  income 
and  devoting  to  the  care  of  the  house  and  the 
twenty  families,  only  such  small  portions  of  their 
time  as  they  can  spare  from  their  regular  business. 

Many  tenement  house  owners  would  be  glad  to 
employ  competent  janitors  if  they  could  obtain 
them,  and  would  be  glad  to  compensate  such  men 
adequately.  It  is,  however,  almost  impossible  to 
obtain  a  good  janitor.  In  the  first  place  there 
is  no  source  of  supply,  no  employment  agencies 
where  they  can  be  obtained.  No  special  quali- 
fications are  required  and  there  is  no  method  of 
training.  No  one  thus  far  has  attempted  to 
equip  the  janitor  for  his  duties. 

What  is  greatly  needed  in  such  cities  as  New 
York,  Boston  and  Chicago,  is  a  training  school  for 
janitors  where  they  can  learn  both  the  theory  and 
practice  of  their  work;  can  be  made  familiar  with 
the  laws  and  ordinances  bearing  upon  it,  with 
the  rights  of  landlords  and  the  rights  of  tenants; 
where  they  can  be  instructed  in  a  practical  way 

189 


HOUSING    REFORM 

in  their  duties;  where  they  can  be  taken  through 
a  tenement  house  and  shown  the  relations  of 
the  plumbing  to  the  health  of  the  occupants,  can 
learn  how  to  make  ordinary  repairs  to  plumbing, 
to  remove  obstructions  in  pipes  and  fixtures; 
can  learn  how  to  do  the  necessary  odd  jobs  of 
carpenter  work  that  every  tenement  house  re- 
quires; be  taught  the  importance  of  maintaining 
high  standards  of  sanitary  conditions;  the  best 
way  to  handle  garbage,  ashes  and  other  refuse;  the 
necessity  of  ventilation  in  all  parts  of  such  a  build- 
ing, the  frequent  airing  of  public  halls — in  a  word, 
can  learn  in  a  practical  way  the  bearing  of  all 
their  duties  upon  the  lives  of  the  people  whom 
they  are  put  there  to  serve,  and  upon  the  financial 
interests  of  their  employers.  If  such  a  training 
school  were  established  and  properly  managed, 
it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  only  competent 
trained  janitors  would  ultimately  be  employed  by 
real  estate  owners.  Such  a  training  school  must 
come  in  the  near  future.  London  has  its  sanitary 
institute,  but  no  American  city  has  anything  of 
the  kind. 

These  are  some  of  the  more  important  forms  of 
work  that  can  be  undertaken  advantageously  by 
persons  interested  in  improving  housing  conditions. 
All  of  them,  however,  will  be  comparatively  in- 
effective unless  preceded  by  a  successful  effort  to 
secure  the  enactment  of  laws  that  will  regulate 
adequately  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  the 
houses  in  which  the  great  mass  of  the  people  live. 

190 


XIV 
A  CHAPTER  OF  DON'TS 


XIV 
A  CHAPTER  OF  DONTS 

DON'T  let  your  city  become  a  city  of  tene- 
ments.    Keep  it  a  city  of  homes. 
Don't  imagine  there  is  no  necessity  for 
action  because  conditions  in  your  city  are  not  as 
bad  as  they  are  elsewhere. 

Don't  build  a  model  tenement  until  you  have 
secured  a  model  housing  law. 

Don't  attempt  to  legislate  first  and  investigate 
afterwards. 

Don't  permit  any  new  houses  to  be  built  that 
do  not  have  adequate  light  and  ventilation  and 
proper  sanitation. 

Don't  legislate  merely  for  the  present. 

Don't  permit  the  growth  of  new  slums.  Pre- 
vention is  better  than  cure. 

Don't  urge  that  all  new  houses  shall  be  fireproof. 

Don't  permit  the  occupancy  of  new  houses  if 
built  in  violation  of  law. 

Don't  lightly  give  discretionary  power  to  the 
officials  who  enforce  your  housing  laws. 

Don't  urge  the  creation  of  a  Tenement  House 
Department,  unless  you  have  more  than  25,000 
tenement  houses. 

'3  193 


HOUSING    REFORM 

Don't  complain  of  the  enforcing  authorities 
until  you  are  familiar  with  their  methods  of 
administration. 

Don't  tolerate  cellar  dwellings. 

Don't  let  the  poor  be  denied  a  liberal  supply  of 
water  in  their  homes. 

Don't  permit  houses  unfit  for  human  habitation 
to  be  occupied. 

Don't  urge  at  first  the  reconstruction  of  the 
older  houses.  Let  this  wait  until  after  other 
things  have  been  done. 

Don't  permit  privies  to  exist  in  any  city. 
Compel  their  removal. 

Don't  urge  the  destruction  of  unsanitary 
buildings.  Keep  them  empty  if  they  are  not  fit 
for  human  habitation. 

Don't  tolerate  the  lodger  evil.     Nip  it  in  the  bud. 

Don't  take  up  minor  matters,  but  attack  the 
worst  evils  first. 

Don't  allow  the  enforcement  of  housing  laws  to 
be  nullified  by  politicians. 

Don't  neglect  the  landlord's  side  of  the  question. 

Don't  repeat  the  talk  about  the  poor  not  want- 
ing good  housing  accommodations. 

Don't  urge  the  municipal  ownership  and  opera- 
tion of  tenement  houses. 

Don't  ask  the  poor  questions  about  themselves 
in  housing  investigations  but  about  their  houses. 

Don't  resort  to  criticism  of  public  officials  until 
you  have  tried  co-operation. 


194 


A    CHAPTER   OF    DON  TS 

Don't  rely  on  the  death  rate  alone  as  an  index 
of  good  or  bad  housing  conditions. 

Don't  confuse  the  fields  of  public  and  private 
effort. 

Don't  cease  your  efforts  when  you  have  passed 
a  good  law.  Eternal  vigilance  is  not  only  the 
price  of  liberty,  but  of  all  progress. 


195 


SAMPLE    SCHEDULES    FOR 
HOUSING  INVESTIGATIONS 


Ill 

0  £ 
5  ° 

u 

K  _ 

Z 

u 

h    » 

OC     Q 

i 

<ol 

b 

c 


cj 


J 

o 

fl 


u-s 


N8 


M 


?i 


^§ 


199 


<* 

V, 

•^ 

u. 

'•"•'    "s 

c 

t 

j 

_ 

^ 

Q 

V. 

^ 

.= 

V 

^ 

>J 

'-1    ^ 

"$ 

o 

* 

j 

^ 

o 

B 

tj 

s» 

Z 

z 

ai 

'c 

IS 

^ 

H 

X 

i 

~ 

W 

a. 

o 

^3 

•^_ 

t/i 

f 

i 

U- 

u 

H 

•X 

0! 

£ 

S 

N 

B 

E 

u. 

"£ 

y 

"X 

C 

0. 

•*3 

^ 

i 

rt 

$ 

Q 

o 

^4 

OS 

^ 

< 

a. 

„ 

£     .' 

W    N 

i! 

K 

b 
d 

1 

1 

a. 
K 

U 
<f.      * 

!  ^ 

<j 

in 
<n 

M 

2 

o 

1 

X 

BE 

•s 

NVESTIGATOR  £>.  '' 

1 

6  BUILT  FOR  TEN  RE 

3 

eg 

E  •§ 
«  ^ 

Z 
£    j. 

K     ' 

<fi  ^ 

5    « 

CG  *aJ 

S     a 

a. 
•f. 

le  No.  KIND  WrffeR 

COMPTS. 

s.  CLEANLINESS:  I 

£ 

O 

£ 

I 

P. 

g 
1 

1 

a 

a 

^ 

1 

z 

CONDITION 
1  1  <J  asisO- 

o. 

fc 
I 

g 

/ENTILATION:  Windows 
y 

NESS:  C  D  F  RUBBISH 

ed  or  painted  CLEANLINl 

•o 

Q 
1 

"o 

u. 

1 

'5 

•c 

n 

B.  GRADE:  G.  F  B 
SH  AIR  INLET  A^Jt 

tn 

Q 
Z 

W 

0 

Z 

i 

01 

n 

I     ' 

•S 
1   s 

Z      . 
j 

m 

2 
3 

B 

Id 

e-S 

a    . 

T:              \ 

W             < 

z    ; 

9> 

K 

OCATION 
,CLES  2 

Z 

e 

O 

CLEANLI 

£ 

£ 

'£ 
1 

B 

•thenware 

-    a 

d 
z  "•» 

J 

1 

3 

ui 

pj     J 

""    tr 

•o 

a. 

j 

J 

u 

.    o 

CO      Z 

M 

W 

H 

c 

o 

Q 

C)    « 

0!     " 

1! 

lr 

be 
•a 
2 

c 
* 

a 

E      CL 

0 

S 

d  ° 

h 

_o 

c 

0 

•O 

1 

8 

tr 

fc-J    ^ 
U. 

b)    < 

O    S 
«!     5 

> 

1 

s  s 

0     \ 

> 

^ 

£ 

Q 
u 

W 
a 

B 
S, 

0 

«! 

U 

u 
(n 

D 
0 

DIST.  1 

a: 

w  - 
a. 

ui 

^ 

U. 
D 

live  DRAIN 

5 

LIES  USED  I 

FLUSH:  Valt 

1 

E 

u. 

£ 
? 

•rvice  pipe  Ni 

z 

B 

8 

CO 

W 
en 

a 
y 

H 

a 

a 

EANLINESS: 

o 
w 
LI 

•a 

o 
u 

I 

Free  openii 

:  LOCATION 

I 

O 

4 

H 

O 
a. 

5 

CLEANLINESS:  C. 
,/ 

1 
£ 
?  ^ 

a 

1 

o 

Q     . 
<j 

S 

a. 

d 
z 

M 
1 

d 

REPAIR:  G.  F  B. 

C.  D.  F  RUBBISH: 
*1A)  y 

0 
• 

2 

1 

s  J 

£  1 
•o 

"S 

1  ^ 

7- 
E 
W 

o 

B 
1 

c 
o 
(J 

M 
B 

a 
o 

•o 

_g 

£ 

Vv.  height  above  cur 
HOUSE  DRAIN 

8. 

M 

til 

Patched  Sound 
HOUSE  TRAP 

0 

c 

* 

Z 

^ 

K. 

••  ^ 
f.     V 

a 

i  <; 

& 

P 

g 

M 

01 

^ 

u. 

d 

Iz 

CLEA 

a 

P 
U 
tio 

*")  /* 

S3NI11 

* 

S 

1 

3 

1 

£ 

tf 

& 

R 

o 

0 

W 

z 

- 

U    i 

2 

tf> 

a 

B 

<!    t- 

a. 

i 

B 

^    -j 

6 

g 

Z 

t/i 

^ 

c    O 

2 

z 

il    -J 

B 

"8 

~ 

-    > 

Z 

g 

W 

^ 

&  r- 

bc    z 

.. 

| 

d  < 

j? 

P 

/) 

CO 

S 

B      ' 

Q 

V) 

O 

M 

^3    ^ 

^     Q 

B 
p 

H 

8 

o. 

•J} 

3 

i 

•o 

8 

£  ""* 

I      * 

1 

| 

•5 

C" 

:« 

B 

1 

v     > 

S    -^ 

1 

z  | 

u 

•o 
o.    - 

8 

3^ 

ki 

s 

° 

*' 

1  1 

1 

j 

0 

X 

u 
.*   ^ 

<•  g 

o 
Z 

£ 

z 

U 

d 

1 

I 

a  o 

1 

M 
e 

1 

u  ^ 

E     V 

~ 

>•' 

g 

•0 

« 

IT 
I-      O 

O    3 

M 

„, 

y 

Q 

? 

C 

c 

X 

** 

c 
Z 

•0      ~ 

» 

B 

^> 

^2    O 

W     . 

^ 

0 

B 

H 

1 

I 

a 

3;    < 

t 

i 

d 
Z 

RCONl 

RECEP' 

a. 
O 
O 

U    -^ 

d  "a 
d 

£•  ui 

Q    » 

in    "i 
te    a 

0     j] 

j 

1 

LJ 
Ul 

o 

z 

5 

I  i 

Q. 

(0 

z  "1 

i] 

(, 

K    0 
Z    a 

i_ 

<0 

pT 

a 

J 

o 

(j; 

Q_ 

li 

V 

a  5 

2 

X 

*j    _j 

ul 

£ 

a 

i 

5 
I 

g 

3 

i 

S 

O 

r 

£ 

i  i 

o 

o 

13 

Q    o 

5 

1  WASTI 

1 


?  «r 


t 
I 

^I" 


*» 
N 

h 


I* 


CVt 


e 

'3 

r 


WATER 
CLOSET 

No. 


"8* 


V      1 

AN 


^s 


Nil 


«  I 


U  I 


203 


s 

< 


V 

i 


« 


X 


INDEX 


INDEX 


PAGE 

ACCOMMODATIONS 

housing,     scarcity     un- 
likely  18-20 

ADMINISTRATION 
of    housing    laws.     See 
Enforcement  and  Mu- 
nicipal 
AIR-SHAFTS,  10, 103-107, 126-127 

AIR  SPACE 

as  a  standard  of  ventila- 
tion   29-30,  1 05 

ALDERMEN 

and  City  Councils 151-153 

ALTERATIONS.  .  105-107,  131-132 
ANIMALS 

in  tenement  houses. . .  1 19-120 
ARCHITECTS 

and  housing  laws 91 , 92 

"BACK-TO-BACK"      TENE- 
MENTS        23 

BATHING  FACILITIES 
lack  of,  in  tenements,  10,  17-18 

requirements  for 1 10-1 12 

coal     in     the    bath-tub 
story  discredited 17-18 

BATHS 
public,  patronage  of 18 

Boss 
political 158-160 

BUILDERS 
and  provision  of  housing 

accommodations 19 

and  model  tenements,  64,  71- 

and  municipal  control,  81-82 

and  housing  regulations,  92-93, 

96-97,  i i 1-1 12,  127, 

'32-134,  "52 


BUILDINGS 

department  or  bureau  of. 
See  Department. 


CARETAKERS  ...........  1  12-1  13 

CELLAR  DWELLINGS,  3,  66,  118- 

119 

CHARITABLE  WORKERS.         See 

Social  workers 
CHILD 

effect    of    bad    housing 
upon  ...............         5 

ClRCULARIZATION  .........        155 

CITIZENS 

neglect    and    ignorance 


CITIZENS'    COMMITTEES 

how  constituted  ........  49,  50 

proper  functions  of  ..  171-177 

CITY       AND       SUBURBAN 
HOMES  COMPANY  .......       69 

CITY  LIFE 

and  country  life  ........  3°-32 

attractions  of  city  .......       32 

CIVIL  PROCESS  ...........     146 

CIVIL  SERVICE  EMPLOYEES 

129-130 

CLEANLINESS 

efforts  of  poor  to  obtain  .  17-18 
provision      of      bathing 
facilities  ...........  1  10-1  12 

care  of  premises  ...  40,  113-114 
standards  for  ..........       59 

COAL 

in    the    bath-tub,    story 
discredited  ...........  17-18 

COMMISSIONER 
of  Health,  powers  of  ____      90 


207 


INDEX 


PACK 

COMMITTEE 

on    housing   reform,    its 
function  two-fold 49 

personnel 49-5 1 

qualifications   of   execu- 
tive        51 

duties  of 52 

COMMITTEES 

legislative 161-162 

COMMUNITY 

and  housing  evils,  4,  12,  43- 

44,  49,  52 
COMPETITION 

municipal  control  would 

drive  out 81-82 

COMPLAINTS 

futility  of 1 24,  1 34-1 36 

CONGESTION 

and     overcrowding,     in 

New  York 8,  1 1 

general  discussion 25-35 

difficulty  of  setting  stan- 
dards  27-3o 

room  overcrowding. .  28-29,  32 
airspace  as  a  standard. .  29-30 
relief  measures  suggested 3 0-3  5 
distribution    of    popula- 
tion one  remedy 30-32 

CONSTRUCTION 

responsibility  for 125,  126 

CORRUPTION 

municipal,  in  connection 

with  building 92-93 

COURTS 

attitude  of 142-144 

CRIMINAL  PROCESS 140 

DARK  ROOMS 3,  5, 8,  10,  59 

DEATH  RATE 
and  bad  housing  condi- 
tions  22-24 

DEPARTMENT 

of  buildings 1 23,  1 25 

and  the  building  inter- 
ests       127 

of  public  safety 1 23 


DESTRUCTION 
of  unsanitary  buildings  20,  32- 

33 

DILAPIDATION 

not  necessarily  an  evil. . .       20 
DISCRETIONARY  POWER, 

dangers  of  granting 90-94 

DISTRIBUTION 

of  population,  one  rem- 
edy for  congestion .  . . .30-32 

DONT'S 

a  chapter  of 191-195 

DRAINAGE 3,  40,  108-109 

"  DUMB-BELL"  TENEMENTS       10 

EARNING  CAPACITY 

affected  by  bad  housing .         5 
ENFORCEMENT 

of  housing  laws  44-45,    121- 
148 

qualifications  of  officials 

130-131 

responsibility  for 123-124 

ENVIRONMENT 4,  5,  16-17 

EXECUTIVE 

of  housing  committee  ...  5 1-52 

FACTS 

knowledge  of  essential  to 
housing  reform,  44,  52-53, 
167 
FALLACIES 

popular 1 3-24 

with  regard  to  the  poor. .  15-18 

lack  of  shelter 1 8-20 

dilapidation 20 

destruction  of  buildings.  20-21 

rear  tenements 21  -23 

on  the  death  rate 23-24 

FINES 

futility  of 131 

FIRE 

protection  against,  10,  40-42, 
114-118,  125 
department  and  housing 
laws 124 


208 


INDEX 


FIRE-ESCAPES 
material    and    construc- 
tion  1 14-1 16 

blocking  of 146 

FIRES 1 17,  1 18 

FOREIGN  POPULATION 
as  factor  in  the  housing 
problem 42 


GRAFT 

See  Corruption 
GREED 

a  cause  of  housing  evils. . 


HEALTH  DEPARTMENT 
and  administration  of 
housing  laws,  125,  126,  127- 

128,  i37~'39,  i40->43 
tenement  house  bureau 

in 129 

women  inspectors 1 30 

and  politics 147-148 

HEIGHT 
of  buildings 96-97,  102,  116 

HOMES 

importance  of  good. .  .6,  11-12 
and  the  lodger  evil 33 

HOUSING 
Committee  on. 
See  Committee 

HOUSING  EVILS 

manifestations  of 3 

causes 3-4 

crystallized  in  New  York  7-12 

unnecessary 12 

evidences  of 24 

effect  on  community. . .  .43-44 
remedies  for.  .  30-35,  66,  70-73 

HOUSING  INVESTIGATION 

essentials  of 53~6o 

schedules  important  ....       55 
preparation  of  schedules .  56-60 

HOUSING  LAWS 
must  meet  local  needs. . .       44 


PAGE 

HOUSING  LAWS  (Continued) 

administration 44~47 

relation  to  other  stat- 
utes  44,94-95 

essential  principles  of. .  .87-97 
knowledge  of  facts  essen- 
tial  32-53 

terms  should  be  definite .  89-90 
dangers  of  granting  dis- 
cretionary power 90-94 

should  look  to  future. . .  .95-97 
what     a     housing     law 

should  contain 99-120 

fundamental  considera- 
tions   101 

light  and  ventilation. .  101-107 

sanitation 107-1 1 2 

maintenance  1 12-1 14,  125,  126 
fire  protection  . . .  1 14-1 18,  125 

enforcement  of 121-148 

advantages  of  state  law 
over  municipal  ordi- 
nance   151 

amendments  to 172 

HOUSING  PROBLEM 

is  widespread 3 

distinct   from   tenement 

house  problem 6 

a  three-fold  problem 37-46 

prevention  of  first  im- 
portance   39 

sanitary,  structural,  and 

social 40-42 

duty  of  state  toward 85-86 

HOUSING  REFORM 

basis  for 20 

mistakes  in,  21,  41,43,44-45, 

•53 

how  to  start  a  move- 
ment for 47-52 

committee  on 49-5 1 

campaigns 51-52,  164-168 

in  New  York 7'~73 

IGNORANCE 

a  factor  in  housing  evils  .         4 
INJUNCTION 141 


209 


INDEX 


INSPECTION 
to  determine  overcrowd- 

.    inS • 34-35 

importance  of  adequate  129- 

130,  134-140 

INTERIOR  ROOMS,  103,  105,  106 
INVESTIGATION 
See  Housing  Investigation. 


JANITORS 112-113 

training  of 188-190 


LABOR  MEN 

and  housing  legislation  155-1 56 
LAND 
occupied.        See      Yard 

Spaces. 

overcrowding.    See  Over- 
crowding 

LANDLORDS 

and  overcrowding 35 

rights  and  duties  of.  .42-43,  52 

the  city  as 78-80 

responsibility 144-145 

registration  of 146-147 

education  of 186-188 

LAW  ENFORCEMENT 173-177 

LAWS.    See  Legislation  and 

Housing  Law 
LEGAL 

equipment  of  health  de- 
partments  138-139 

processes,  civil  and  crim- 
inal  140-144 

LEGISLATION 

with  regard  to  lodgers. . .  34-35 
administration    and    fi- 
nances  45-46 

importance   of   accurate 
knowledge  in  securing     44, 
52-53,  167 

results  of,  in  New  York,  45-46, 
71,  73,  84,  91 
in  relation  to  municipal 
control...  8 1 


LEGISLATION  (Continued) 
constitutional        limita- 
tions        86 

should   deal   with   essen- 
tials        86 

essential  principles  of,  44-46, 
87^7 

enforcement 121-148 

advantages  of  state  laws  151- 

'53 
methods  of  securing. .  153-168 

LEGISLATIVE  REFORMS 

how  to  secure 151-168 

committees 161-162 

LESSONS 

from    New    York's    ex- 
perience . .  .7-12,  45-46,  91, 
1 1 1 

LETTERS 

in  securing  legislative  re- 
forms  162-164 

LIGHT 

importance  of,  3,  5,  8,  10,  22 
requirements    for,    in    a 
housing  law.  .101-107,  126- 
127 

LODGER  EVIL 3,  33-35,42 

placing  of  responsibility 

for 35 

economic    consequences 

of 33-34 

LODGING  HOUSES 
in  tenements. ..  120 


MAINTENANCE  112-114,  I25>  I26> 
134-148 
MANAGEMENT 
of  tenements 177,  178 

MODEL  TENEMENT  HOUSES  20 
and  their  limitations. . .  .61-73 
not  a  solution  of  the 

housing  problem 63-66 

commercial  builders  not 

influenced  by 64-65 

benefit  but  few. .  .65-66, 71-73 
in  New  York 67-68,71-73 


2IO 


INDEX 


FACE 

MODEL  TENEMENT  HOUSES  (Con- 
tinued) 

as  charitable  enterprises.       69 
"  philanthropy  and  5  per 

cent  " 69 

effort  and  money  often 

misplaced 70, 72-73 

MUNICIPAL 

functions 83-84 

operation,    advantages 

and  disadvantages  of  .  77-86 
European  conditions  dif- 
ferent        78 

the  city  as  landlord 78-80 

civil  service  law  an  ob- 
stacle to  efficient  ad- 
ministration  80-8 1 

restrictive  legislation  ...       81 
would  kill  competition. .  81-82 
ordinances,       disadvan- 
tages of 151-153 

regulation 77-80 

tenements 77~86 


NEGLECT 
a  cause  of  housing  evils. .         4 

NEW  BUILDINGS 
methods  of  enforcement 
in 131-134 

NEW  YORK 
tenement  house  problem 

in 6,7-12,71-73 

lessons    to    be    learned 

from,  7-12,  45-46,  91,  in 
number    and    types    of 
tenement  houses,  10-1 1, 1 17- 
118 

housing  legislation  in,  41,  45- 

46,   71-72,    91,    104,    iii- 

ii2,  117-118,  132-133,  137, 

142 

Tenement     House     De- 
partment  viii,  45-46, 

128,  132, 138,  139,  14; 
model  tenements  in...(' 


costof  tenements,  in  1906 


OCTAVIA     HILL    ASSOCIA- 
TION      178 

OUTPREMISES 3,  109 

OVERCROWDING 

room  and  land 27-29,  32 

and  the  lodger  evil 33~53 

remedies  for 3°~35. 42 

See  also  Congestion 

OWNERS.     See    Landlords 


PARKS.       See  Public  Im- 
provements 

PENALTIES 144 

PETITIONS 

of  little  value 162 

"  PHILANTHROPY  AND  FIVE 

PERCENT" 69 

PHOTOGRAPHS 

value  of 60,  1 39- 1 40,  1 5  5 

PLUMBING,  3,  20,40, 108-109, 125 

ignorance   of   tenants 

with  regard  to 184-185 

POLICE  DEPARTMENT 

and  housing  laws 1 24 

POLICE  POWER 

of    state,    in    tenement 

house  regulation 85-86 

POLITICS 

and  housing  reform,  50,  77-86, 
129-130,  147-148,   151-152, 
158-160,  164-168 
POOR 

the,  misconceptions  with 

regard  to 15-18 

POPULATION 

distribution  of 30-32 

POVERTY 

new  view  of 5 

PRESS 

the,    its   support   essen- 
tial  153-154,  181-182 

PRESSURE 

on  living  accommodations     19 


21  I 


INDEX 


PAGE 

PREVENTION 
the     best     solution     of 

housing  evils 39, 70-7 1 

PRIVATE  EFFORT 

the  field  of 171-190 

citizens'  committees  . .  171-177 

attitude  toward  officials  173- 

176 

district  inspection 176-177 

companies     to     manage 

tenements 177-180 

through  education. . . .  181-190 

PRIVIES 3,  1 1,  40,  1 08 

PROGRAMME 

for  housing  reform. ...  171-190 
PROHIBITION 

of      occupancy.         See 
Vacating    of   Premises 
PROSTITUTES 

in  tenement  houses 119 

PUBLIC 
improvements,     do    not 

work  hardship 19-20 

officials,     ignorance     of 

housing  evils 4 

officials,  attitude  toward   174- 
176 

sentiment,  power  of.  153-160, 
181-182 
PUBLIC  BATHS.     See  Batbs 


REAR  TENEMENTS 

not  necessarily  bad 21-23 

REGISTRATION 

of  tenement  owners. . .  146-147 

RELIEF  MEASURES.        See 

Remedies 
REMEDIES 

for  congestion  and  over- 
crowding  3°~35 

for  bad   housing  condi- 
tions  66, 85 

police  power  of  state. . .  .85-86 
See    Legislation      and 
Housing  Laws 


RENTS 

excessive 3,  8 

and  the  lodger  evil 33~35 

REPORTS 
of  housing  investigations       60 

RESPONSIBILITY 

shifting  of 1 24 

ROOM  OVERCROWDING. 
See  Overcrowding 

ROOMS 

interior 1 03,  1 05,  1 06 

lighting  of 105 

dark 3,  5,  8,  10,  59 

SANITARY 

conveniences     in     tene- 
ment houses ii 

problems 40 

SANITATION  40,  107-112,  127-128 
See  also  Light,  Plumb- 
ing, Water  Supply 
SCHEDULES 

importance  of,  in  hous- 
ing investigations  . . .  .55-56 
preparation  and  use  of  . .  56-60 

order  of  subjects 57~5^ 

tabulation  of  results 60 

samples  of 199-203 

"SCHOOL-SINKS." 

See  Privies 

SHELTER 

scarcity  of,  unlikely 18-20 

SOCIAL  PROBLEMS 

in    relation    to    housing 
evils,  3,8,9,  16-17,  27>  33> 
42,  43,  85,  92-93.  '  '9 
SOCIAL  WORKERS 

changed  views  of 4-5 

in  legislative  campaigns   156, 

159,  1 66 

and  law  enforcement. ...      176 

STAIRS 

necessity    for    fireproof 
construction 1 17 


212 


INDEX 


PAGE 

STRUCTURAL  PROBLEMS 

in  housing  reform  40-42,  101- 
105 
SUPERINTENDENT  OF 

BUILDINGS 

dangers  of  granting  dis- 
cretionary power  to. .  .90-94 

SWEATING  EVIL 3, 42 


TENANTS 

protection  of 43,  145-146 

instruction  of 183-186 

responsibility.  ...112,  145-146 
selection  of 179,  180 

TENEMENT  HOUSE 

what  constitutes  a 7, 8 

"dumb-bell" 10 

rear 21-23 

"back-to-back" 23 

TENEMENT  HOUSE  ACT 

of  1867 95 

of  1901 45,  1 17 

TENEMENT    HOUSE    COM- 
MISSION      in 

TENEMENT     HOUSE     DE- 
PARTMENT or  bureau. . .45-46, 
128-129,  137 
See  also  New  York 

TENEMENT   HOUSE   PROB- 
LEM 

beginnings  of 3.6,7 

restricted  to  few  cities. . .     6, 7 
easily  checked  at  outset.     6,  7 

in  New  York 8-12 

duty  of  the  state  toward .  85-86 
See       Legislation       and 
Housing  Laws 


TUBERCULOSIS 
and  poverty. 


PAGE 

5 


UNSANITARY  HOUSES 
to  be  vacated  21,  107,  137,  138 

VACATING 

of  premises  ...21,  1 07,  137,  138 
VENTILATION 

importance  of  8,   10,  20,  22, 
29-30 

requirements  in  a  hous- 
ing law 96-97,  101-107 

responsibility  for  secur- 
ing       125 

ignorance     of     tenants 
with  regard  to 183-184 

VOLUNTEER  WORKERS 

and  law  enforcement 176 

WATER-CLOSETS 109,  1 1 1 

WATER  SUPPLY  .  .3,  108-1 10,  125 

WHITE,  ALFRED  T. 

pioneer  in  building  model 
tenements 69 

WOMEN 

inspectors 1 30 

rent  collectors 178,  179 

WORKINGMEN 

normal    housing    condi- 
tions of 6,7 

housing  of,  in  New  York .     8, 9 
and  housing  legislation  155-156 

YARD  SPACES  95-97, 102, 131-132 


213 


A  MODEL  TENEMENT 
HOUSE  LAW 

BY  LAWRENCE  VEILLER 

Author  of  "  Housing  Reform,"  etc. 

"A  Model  Tenement  House  Law"  is 
uniform  in  size  with  "Housing  Reform" 
and  is  written  as  a  companion  volume. 

Specific  sections  cover  every  essential 
feature  of  a  model  housing  law  so  arranged 
that  by  changing  a  word  here  or  there  it 
can  be  adopted  by  any  community  as  a 
state  law  or  a  city  ordinance. 

An  invaluable  aid  for  all  persons  formu- 
lating housing  legislation. 

12mo.     Price,  postpaid,  $1.25 


CHARITIES   PUBLICATION  COMMITTEE 
105  E.  22d  Street,  New  York.     1 58  Adams  Street,  Chicago 


SOCIAL  FORCES 

By  EDWARD  T.  DEVINE 

Editor  The  Survey;  General  Secretary  of  the  New  York  Charity  Orginiza- 

tion  Society;  Schiff  Professor  of  Social  Economy.  Columbia  University; 

Author  of   "Principles  of^Relief,"  "Misery  and  Its  Clauses." 

"Efficiency  and  Relief,"  "The  Practice  of  Charity,"  etc. 

Twenty- five  editorials  which  discuss  subjects 
of  permanent  interest  have  been  chosen  for 
this  volume  from  among  the  six  score  or  more 
written  tinder  the  heading  Social  Forces  in 
THE  SURVEY.  Together  they  embody  Dr. 
Devine's  social  philosophy  in  a  most  impressive 
way,  and  the  book  becomes  a  formulation  of  that 
"new  view"  of  which  Dr.  Devine  has  long  been 
both  exponent  and  advocate,  and  which  sums 
up  as  "the  new  view,  prophetic  though  it  be, 
of  a  social  order  in  which  ancient  wrongs  shall 
be  righted,  new  corruptions  foreseen  and  pre- 
vented, the  nearest  approach  to  equality  of  op- 
portunity assured,  and  the  individual  redis- 
covered under  conditions  vastly  more  favorable 
for  his  greatest  usefulness  to  his  fellows  and 
for  the  highest  development  of  all  his  powers/' 

SAID  OF  DR.  DEVTNE'S  WRITING: 

The  sane  prophet  of  a  new  day. — New  York  "  Times." 

Vigorous  analysis  and  comment. — Philadelphia 
"Public  Ledger." 

Professor  Devine  is  consistent,  optimistic,  stimu- 
lating.— Louisville  "  Journal." 

It  is  a  cheerful  gospel,  attractive  to  the  practical  man, 
repellent  to  none. — New  York  "  Times." 

His  strategy  is  so  far  reaching  and  so  ably  argued,  his 
knowledge  of  the  hostile  forces  so  exact,  his  confidence 
so  unwavering,  that  the  reader  almost  hears  the  vic- 
torious shouts  of  the  regiments  making  the  onslaught. 
"Poverty  can  and  must  be  abolished";  that  is  the 
rallying  cry. — "The  Independent/' 

I2tno,  226  pp.    Price,  postpaid,  $1.25 

CHARITIES  PUBLICATION  COMMITTEE 
105  E.  22d  St.,  New  York.         158  Adams  St.,  Chicago 


THE 


SURVEY 

A  JOURNAL  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  PHILANTHROPY 


THE  SURVEY  is  a  weekly  magazine  for  all  those  who 
believe  that  progress  in  this  country  hinges  on 
social  service:  that  legislation,  city  government,  the 
care  of  the  unfortunate,  the  cure  of  the  sick,  the  edu- 
cation of  children,  the  work  of  men  and  the  homes  of 
women,  must  pass  muster  in  their  relation  to  the  com- 
mon welfare. 

As  Critic,  THE  SURVEY  examines  conditions  of  life 
and  labor,  and  points  where  they  fail:  how  long  hours, 
low  pay,  insanitary  housing,  disease,  intemperance,  in- 
discriminate charity,  and  lack  of  recreation,  break  down 
character  and  efficiency. 

As  Student,  THE  SURVEY  examines  immigration,  in- 
dustry, congestion,  unemployment,  to  furnish  a  solid 
basis  of  fact  for  intelligent  and  permanent  betterment. 

As  Program,  THE  SURVEY  stands  for  Prevention:  Pre- 
vention of  Poverty  through  wider  opportunity  and  ade- 
quate charity;  Prevention  of  Disease  through  long-range 
systems  of  sanitation,  of  hospitals  and  sanatoriums,  of 
good  homes,  pure  food  and  water,  a  chance  for  play 
out-of-doors;  Prevention  of  Crime  through  fair  laws, 
juvenile  courts,  real  reformatories,  indeterminate  sen- 
tence, segregation,  discipline  and  probation;  Preven- 
tion of  Inefficiency,  both  industrial  and  civic,  through 
practice  in  democracy,  restriction  of  child  labor,  fair 
hours,  fair  wages,  enough  leisure  for  reading  and  recrea- 
tion, compulsory  school  laws  and  schools  that  fit  for 
life  and  labor,  for  the  earning  of  income  and  for  rational 
spending. 


EDWARD   T.  DEVINE EDITOR 

GRAHAM    TAYLOR  -  ASSOCIATE    EDITOR 

105   EAST  J2D  A    —      ff.       vrr^.rjfx/  158     ADAMS 

*™"",uc       ^  —  YhAKLY 


THE  PITTSBURGH  SURVEY 

A  CLOSE   RANGE  INVESTIGATION  OF  CONDITIONS 

OF    LIFE   AND  LABOR  IN  AN   AMERICAN 

INDUSTRIAL  DISTRICT 

FINDINGS  IN  Six  VOLUMES 

Edited  by 

PAUL  UNDERWOOD  KELLOGG 


COLLEAGUES  IN  THE  FIELD  WORK 
ROBERT  A.  WOODS,  head  worker,  South  End  House,  Boston,  author  of 

"Americans  in  Process,"  "The  City  Wilderness,"  etc. 
JOHN    R.    COMMONS,    professor,    University   of    Wisconsin,    Secretary 

American   Association   for   Labor   Legislation;    author   of    "Trade 

Union  and  Labor  Problems." 
FLORENCE  KELLEY,   Secretary  National   Consumers'   League,   former 

chief  factory  inspector,  Illinois;    author  of  "Ethical  Gains  Through 

Legislation." 
LAWRENCE    VEILLER,    former   secretary   New   York   State   Tenement 

House  Commission;    editor  of  "The  Tenement  House  Problem." 
PETER  ROBERTS,  secretary  for  immigration,  International  Y.  M.  C.  A.; 

author   of    "Anthracite    Coal   Industry,"    "Anthracite   Coal   Com- 
munities." 

ALOIS  B.  KOUKOL,  secretary  Slavonic  Immigrant  Society. 
RICHARD  R.  WRIGHT,  JR.,  former  head  of  Trinity  Mission  in  the  Black 

Belt,  Chicago. 
CHARLES  MULFORD  ROBINSON,  civic  advertiser  for  Denver,  Columbus, 

Honolulu,   etc.,  author  of  "Modem  Civic  Art,"  "Improvement  of 

Towns  and  Cities." 
LILA  VERPLANCK   NORTH,   member  of  faculty,   College  for  Women, 

Baltimore. 
FLORENCE    LARRABEE    LATTIMORE,    formerly   of    Children's    Bureau, 

Seybert  Institution,  Philadelphia. 

ELIZABETH  BEARDSLEY  BUTLER,   former  secretary,  New  Jersey  Con- 
sumers' League. 
JOHN  A.  FITCH,  Fellow,  University  of  Wisconsin;    expert  New  York 

State  Department  of  Labor. 

CRYSTAL  EASTMAN,   attomey-at-Iaw,  secretary  New  York  State  Com- 
mission on  Employers'  Liability. 
MARGARET  F.  BYINGTON,  formerly  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  Red 

Cross  Representative  at  Monongah  Mine  Disaster. 
AND  OTHERS. 

SAID  OF  THE  PITTSBURGH  SURVEY 

'  'The  most  careful  and  detailed  study  of  life  and  labor  ever  made  in 
this  country." — Review  of  Reviews. 

"The  Pittsburgh  Survey  is  no  superficial  comment.    It  dives  deep 
into  the  lives  of  common  men." — Collier's  Weekly. 

Address  CHARITIES  PUBLICATION  COMMITTEE 

105   EAST   22D   STREET,    NEW   YORK 
158   ADAMS   STREET,    CHICAGO 


2r.««" 


000  676  634     9 


